North Star
by Laura Picken
Summary: In the "Four Winds" universe (My Castle Fantasy AU series). An unknown mastermind seems to be trying to give the world's criminals supernatural abilities. Can the Guardians and the Avengers work together to find and stop this evil before it plunges the world into chaos? SPOILER ALERT: STORY WILL INCLUDE SPOILERS FOR "IRON MAN 3"
1. Chapter 1

North Star

a Castle / Avengers Crossover

in the "Four Winds" universe

by Laura Picken

Hi all! Well, writing a novel is a lot harder than I thought. So since I need an escape, I thought I'd bring you guys along with me. Hope you enjoy it!

DISCLAIMER: Like I own anything! This story is in the universe of my Castle Fantasy AU series "Four Winds", and overlaps with the series finale story, "Ascension". This story will make much more sense if you've at least read my story "Four Winds" (check my author page), although I'll try to write this so it's not necessary. And feel free to message me privately if you get lost. I'm happy to answer any and all questions. As for SPOILERS, I pick and choose plot points in Castle's season five to my liking, so if you haven't gotten to "Always" yet. Also, I know this may be out of sync with Avengers canon, but I'm placing the Chitauri attack in summer of 2013.

Let the adventure begin!

* * *

"See, Steve? Wasn't it worth getting out of that gym for this?"

Steve Rogers took a sip of his beer as he took in the scene in front of him. "It's a *party*, LT," he commented to his friend. "You dragged me all the way out of Brooklyn for a block party?"

LT chuckled in disbelief at his buddy's world-weary response. "You think I would drag you out for just *any* block party? C'mon, I got some guys you gotta meet."

"Sure," Steve replied with a shy smile, "just let me get a beer first."

"Al'right," LT agreed.

Steve made his way over to the buffet table as LT disappeared into the crowd. It was only when he turned around, though, that Steve realized something very important.

In the sea of people surrounding him, finding LT again was going to be next to impossible.

Steve twisted off the top to his beer and sipped the drink, grateful to give his hands something to do while his mind assessed the situation. LT was a police officer, a good man, and a good friend...who seemed to be making it his mission in life to help Steve *get* a life. In particular, LT seemed hell-bent on helping him make more friends than the three or four men who had some contact with him at the gym. The poor cop was probably dragging his friends through this mass of people, trying to follow through with whatever introductions he was so determined to make that night.

"Not much for big parties, huh?"

It took Steve a moment to realize that someone was talking to him. He turned to find the a young redhead was the one who had spoken. "Not really, ma'am," he replied politely. "Haven't really been to one in quite a long time..."

The redhead seemed hung up on the first part of what Steve had said to her. "Ma'am..." she commented with a quiet chuckle as she played with the label on her bottle of seltzer. "I think that's the first time anyone's ever called me ma'am..."

_My God, she's so young..._thought Steve. He held out his hand to the redhead in introduction. "Steve Rogers."

When their hands touched, the connection between them was electric. It surprised him to make that kind of connection with someone so young, but then when he looked into her eyes...She was a mass of contradictions. Her entire countenance gave off that air of youth and innocence that he heard in her voice when she first spoke. But her eyes...her eyes spoke of wisdom and intelligence far beyond her years and power beyond anything he'd ever seen. It was like he was shaking hands with the woman the expression 'Old Soul' was created for...

"Steve? Steve?"

It was only then that Steve realized that he hadn't let go of her hand...or found out who she was. He pulled his hand back like it had been set on fire, blushing as he realized that any attempt to look cool had long ago gone up in smoke. This caused the redhead to chuckle again...a low throaty sound that made him glad to have embarrassed himself, if only to have had the opportunity to hear it. "S-s-sorry...sorry about that," he stammered, his cheeks a furious red from blushing.

"It's okay," the redhead soothed. "I think it's cute."

Steve decided to throw caution to the wind. "Can we try that again?" he asked. "Now that I've gotten looking completely foolish out of the way, I'd at least like to know your name."

"Sure," the redhead agreed, eliciting another coveted chuckle.

Steve once again extended his hand to the young woman in greeting. "Steve Rogers. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, Steve," the redhead responded as she shook Steve's hand. "Alexis Castle."

"So what are you doing at a party hosted by the NYPD, Alexis Castle?" Steve asked with a smile. "Are you a police officer?" Alexis nearly spit out out her drink, a reaction that surprised Steve greatly. "Hey, are you okay?"

Alexis nodded. "I'm fine. Just...surprised, that's all. And no, I'm not a cop. I'm a sophomore at Columbia."

"A college student?" Steve asked, an eyebrow raised in surprise. "You're *really* far away from campus."

"My dad lives a few blocks away from here. He works here with the detectives at the precinct."

"Really?" asked Steve. "What does he do?"

Alexis took a sip of her drink to try and hide her smile. "He's a...consultant." It was only then that Alexis realized something about the progression of their conversation. "You don't know who my dad is, do you?"

Steve shook his head. "No, should I?"

"Richard Castle? The author? Wrote the Nikki Heat books?" Steve shook his head again, the name clearly not one that he recognized. "You don't get out much, do you?" asked Alexis.

Steve quickly became the one covering his tracks. "Not really, no..."

"Clearly." Alexis smiled. "So what do you do that keeps you from getting out so much, Mr. Rogers?"

Steve hesitated, trying to figure out a way to word his unique story without giving away any secrets. "I'm...retired. I used to be in the military."

Alexis' eyebrow lifted in curious surprise. "Really? I thought you had to be in the military for twenty years before you could retire."

Steve sipped his drink, his mind working furiously to try and backtrack on his statement. "I'm...older than I look."

* * *

"So who is this guy you want us to meet?" asked Ryan.

LT was practically bouncing on his heels with excitement as they headed back to where he thought Steve was going to be. "A friend of mine from the gym. He's...new in town."

"And why do you want *us* to meet him?" Esposito asked warily.

LT scratched the back of his neck, trying to explain his reasoning without giving anyone's secrets away. "Detectives...let's just say I think the three of you might have a lot in common."

When the three men reached the buffet table, they were all stunned by what they were seeing. Steve and Alexis had commandeered the end of one of the dining tables, and were striking up a conversation that seemed to be giving them the power to shut out the rest of the world. Esposito let out a low, protective growl as his instincts kicked in with a vengeance...the need to protect the girl he now thought of as his kid sister overriding almost all rational thought.

Ryan picked up on the change in his partner's emotional state immediately. _Easy, Javi,_ he projected into the mind-link, _they're just talking._

_I don't know, _countered Esposito, _something about this guy feels...off._

_Only one way to be sure, _Ryan returned through the mind-link, _let LT introduce you to him._

While he didn't recognize the young redhead that Steve was talking to, LT couldn't help but notice the hesitation in the men standing beside him. "Detectives, I swear...he's cool." He then turned his focus on getting his friend's attention. "Steve!"

Steve looked up from his conversation with Alexis to find his friend LT being flanked two strong-looking gentlemen. Apparently, these must be the men LT was so anxious for me to meet... "Hey LT," Steve greeted his friend, "how'd you figure out where I was?"

"Easy," LT teased, "When you want to find the wallflower you just look for the walls..." He stepped back to make the introductions. "Steve, I'd like you to meet Detectives Kevin Ryan and Javier Esposito. Detectives, this is my friend, Steve Rogers."

"Nice to meet you," Ryan said casually as he shook Steve's hand. LT then had to resist the urge to draw in a sharp, nervous breath as Steve shook Esposito's hand.

Esposito quickly had to resist the urge to gasp himself. Not from the shock of downloading the memories of the man in front of him, but from the memories themselves. Memories of an old war. Of lost love. Great physical deeds of heroism. And a red, white and blue suit of armor that seemed oddly familiar...

Ryan sensed the change in his partner's demeanor immediately. _Javi? What did you see?_

_I'll show you later, _replied Esposito. _But I think I've heard of this guy before..._

_You've heard of him?_

_Yeah._

_So who is he?_

Esposito sent an image of a red, white and blue combat outfit down the mind-link to his partner. _Bro, you ever hear of Captain America?_

Ryan had to fight to keep the shock from showing on his face. _No way..._

LT had stalled for as long as he could, and Esposito knew it was time for them to join the conversation before the silence got suspiciously awkward. "So," he asked Steve, "where do you two work out again...?"

* * *

_**Three months later...**_

Steve relaxed against a tree in Brooklyn Battery Park, playing with Alexis' fiery red hair as they both soaked in the warmth and sunlight of the beautiful spring day. Everything around him felt like it was awakening from winter's long, cold slumber: the sun, the flowers, the trees...even the people around him felt they were coming back to life after long months in hibernation.

He could relate.

For the first time since SHIELD had chipped him out of that ice, Steve felt alive. He wasn't just going through the motions of having a life anymore. On the contrary; he was finally beginning to feel like he had a life, a hope, and a future. And all three of those things could only be credited to one person: the beautiful young woman he was holding in his arms.

Steve was in love; he was deeply in love with Alexis, and he knew it. And because of that love, he also knew that they couldn't have any secrets between them if their relationship was going to have a chance. Including his biggest secret. "Hey Lex?"

"Mmmm?"

"You know I'm crazy about you, right?"

Alexis sat up when she heard the serious tone in her boyfriend's voice. "Yeah..." The mix of love and nervous concern in Steve's expression was unmistakable, and it was causing Alexis to worry. "Steve? Honey, what is it?"

Steve caressed the side of Alexis' hand with his thumb, gaining strength from the connection between them. "Lex...I don't want there to be any secrets between us." Alexis tensed up just slightly, but Steve was too wrapped up in his own nerves to notice. "Do you remember how, on the day we first met, I told you that I'm a lot older than I look?"

Alexis nodded. "I don't think you've ever actually told me how old that is," she teased.

Steve swallowed hard, knowing how difficult it was going to be for Alexis to accept what he was about to say. "Alexis, I was born on the Fourth of July..."

"How very patriotic," Alexis teased.

"1922."

Alexis' eyes widened almost reflexively as she considered her boyfriend's confession. "You mean to tell me you're ninety one years old?" Steve nodded. "And when you told me you were ex-military..."

"I fought in World War II," Steve replied.

"Wow..." Alexis exclaimed, dumbfounded. A knot formed in the pit of her stomach as she asked the one question she had to ask. "So how do you look..."

"So young?" asked Steve, completing Alexis' thought. When she nodded, Steve began telling his story. "It took me three different tries to get in the Army. I kept getting rejected."

Alexis raised an eyebrow at that. "You? You practically look like a poster child for the perfect soldier..."

"I didn't always look like this," Steve admitted, blushing. "When I first tried to enlist I was a sickly, scrawny little guy. I was the kind of guy you'd probably call a nerd today. The only way they'd let me into the Army was if I volunteered for a...medical experiment."

"What kind of experiment?" asked Alexis.

"The Army had heard rumors that the Nazis were trying to create the perfect super soldier," Steve explained. "So the Army came up with their own experiment to make sure the Nazis didn't get ahead of them. And their experiment only had one success."

Alexis caught on immediately. "You."

"Me," Steve agreed.

Alexis tucked a wayward lock of hair behind her ear. Her emotions were being pulled in a hundred different directions; shock mixed with surprise, and curiosity and concern mixed with a level of hope she almost found surprising. "And this experiment...is it the reason you look so much younger than your age?"

"To be honest, I don't know," Steve admitted quietly. "Mostly I look this young because I was in a plane crash over the Arctic that kept my body frozen for sixty years."

Alexis' eyes flew open again. "*Sixty* years?!" Steve nodded. Alexis tried to imagine how she would feel if she suddenly regained consciousness sixty years in the future. "That's why you didn't get out much when we first met, isn't it?"

Steve nodded again. "Everyone I knew...everything I cared about...everyone I loved...they were all dead or had lived a long, full life without me in it. I had no idea how to even try to start building a life again. I barely wanted to...until I met you." Alexis squeezed Steve's hand in a gesture of support as he wrapped up his story. "Lex, I know how crazy this story sounds..."

It was then that Alexis did the one thing Steve could never have anticipated. She smiled. "Oh believe me," Alexis countered, shaking her head, "it's not nearly as crazy as you think it is. And it's not nearly as crazy as what I now need to tell *you*."

Steve was starting to feel almost as lost as he had when he first saw the modern Times Square. "Alexis? What is it?"

"Do you remember Detective Esposito? He was one of the guys LT introduced you to at the party."

Steve nodded. "He joined my gym, but I haven't seen him much since then. Why?"

"Well," Alexis replied, trying to figure out where to begin, "the next day, he made me promise something. Something I didn't understand until just now."

"What?" asked Steve.

Alexis pulled Steve to his feet before explaining herself. "Javi made me promise that if things ever got serious between us that I would take you to him as soon as 'I knew.' I guess I shouldn't be surprised that he saw this coming..."

The couple left the park and walked to a nearby alley, giving them the privacy for what Alexis needed to do next. She looked into the eyes of the man she loved, kissing him gently before taking his hands with her own. "Steve...you're not the only one with a big secret in this relationship."

Their surroundings changed in the blink of an eye. Steve turned around in a slow circle, noticing, to his complete amazement, that he was no longer outside. He was in a warehouse, if the high ceilings were any indication, but the sheer numbers of people passing by him were causing Steve to quickly realize that this warehouse was not being used to store things. And as for how he got to the warehouse..."Alexis?" Steve asked warily, "what just happened?"

Alexis swallowed hard, knowing that she needed to explain their mode of transportation...but also fully aware of how hard her next statement was going to be for even her boyfriend to believe. "Steve...I'm a wizard."

Steve's eyes widened in disbelief. "A wizard?"

"Hold out your hand."

Curious, Steve obeyed Alexis' command...then stared, astonished, at the yellow and orange glow of the flame that flickered to life just half an inch above his open palm. His other hand reached out to the flame to try and verify the evidence of his eyes...recoiling only when the heat from the flame started to burn his fingers. "You're doing this?"

"Yeah," Alexis said with a smile. "Pretty cool, huh?"

"I think this is exactly the opposite of cool, Lex," exclaimed Steve. Alexis chuckled as she waved her own hand over the flame, causing it to flicker, then disappear. Steve flexed the fingers of his hand in disbelief, stunned that his hand was completely undamaged. It took him a moment to find his voice again. "Did...did you do that, Alexis?" Alexis nodded. "And you were the one who got us here?" Alexis nodded again. "Where exactly are we?"

"My job," replied Alexis. "At least...it will be, once the paperwork goes through."

"Paperwork?" Steve asked, confused. "Who do you work for?"

Alexis shrugged. "I guess, technically, I work for my dad," she replied. "But my dad and his friends report directly to the President."

Every word coming from Alexis' mouth seemed to be sending Steve into a greater state of shock. "The President..." he exclaimed. "Wow..."

Two new people came down the hallway and entered the conversation. Both men seemed to recognize Steve, although he was only able to put a name to one of their faces. "Detective Esposito, I presume?"

Esposito decided to get all of his cards on the table up front as he shook the hand of his 'kid sister's boyfriend. "And you're Captain America."

Steve raised a curious eyebrow. "You don't look old enough to be familiar with that name, Detective."

"I'm not," Esposito agreed. "But I read memories."

"Ah," said Steve, fighting to accept the brief comment at face value. "So you've known for a while."

"Since the party," Esposito admitted.

"And you never told Alexis?"

Esposito shrugged. "Not my story to tell. I knew you would tell her when you were ready."

Steve nodded, deeply respecting the sentiment behind Esposito's statement. "Thank you." It was then, though, that Steve remembered something else about the former detective. "And you joined my gym because..."

"Just because I respect your history doesn't mean I didn't feel the need to keep tabs on you."

"Point taken," Steve agreed with a chuckle, knowing he might have done the same thing for someone that he cared about. "So do I pass muster?"

"So far." the third man chimed in to the conversation by introducing himself with his hand outstretched in greeting. "Kevin Ryan, Captain. My dad was a big fan of yours when I was growing up."

Steve shook Ryan's hand. "Always nice to be appreciated. And please, call me Steve."

"Okay, Steve," Ryan repeated. "Actually...we were wondering if you wouldn't mind going for a run with us."

"Sure," Steve agreed with a shrug...then stared, open-mouthed, as Ryan and Esposito took off at a speed that Steve knew only one man in the world could match.

Him.

Steve sprinted down the hallway to catch up to the other two men, then joined them as the trio made the industrial area surrounding the warehouse into their own personal jungle gym.

By the time the men returned to the roof of the warehouse, Steve was winded, stunned, confused...and discovering, to his surprise, that he was also the happiest he'd been in decades.

Esposito seemed to be sharing at least some of Steve's enthusiasm. "I have been wanting to do *that* since we first met at the party!" he exclaimed.

Steve turned to his new friends, hoping to start to get some of his questions answered. "So...are you guys like me?"

"Not exactly," Ryan replied as he was catching his breath. "Let's just call it...a different path to similar results."

"So you're not Army?" asked Steve. He turned to Esposito. "You looked like an Army man to me."

Esposito nodded. "I was. Special Forces. But until a few months ago most of us were NYPD."

"So that was your old precinct?" Steve asked, catching on immediately. "The party where we met?" Ryan and Esposito both nodded, so Steve waved his hand around to reference their surroundings and their previous activities. "What is it that you guys do here?"

"That's still being worked out, in some ways," said the fourth man entering the conversation, "but mostly we investigate threats that other agencies wouldn't believe or aren't otherwise equipped to handle." The fourth man handed water bottles to the other three men before extending a hand to Steve in greeting. "Alexis mentioned that she had brought someone over to meet the family, and when she mentioned what you were doing, I figured you could use a drink. Name's Mark Fallon."

"Steve Rogers." He shook Fallon's outstretched hand as he looked around and realized something out-of-place in his surroundings. "There's no entrance to the roof from inside the warehouse, is there?"

"Nope," Fallon replied, shaking his head.

"How did you get up here?" asked Steve.

Fallon took a sip of his own water before answering the question. "The same way you guys did."

Steve was starting to wonder how many surprises were in store for him that day. "So you're like them, too?"

Fallon shook his head. "Yes and no." He tried to size up how much Steve knew before turning to Ryan and Esposito. "How'd he do when you guys were running?"

"Matched us stride for stride," Ryan replied with a smile.

That was the complete opposite of the answer Fallon had been expecting. "Really?" he exclaimed, surprised and impressed by their visitor. When Ryan and Esposito both nodded, Fallon turned his attention back to Steve. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but exactly..."

Ryan cut Fallon off before he could finish his question. "Ever hear of Captain America, Fallon?"

The name registered in Fallon's mind immediately. "*You're* Captain America?" When Steve nodded, Fallon shook his hand again. "That *would* explain it. Welcome to the Network, Captain. It's an honor to have you here."

"What's the Network?" asked Steve.

"The Network is an organization designed to support and protect the descendants of an ancient order called the Guardians of Shangri La," replied Fallon. "Mr. Ryan and Mr. Esposito here are two of the Guardians."

Steve nodded. "How many Guardians are there?"

"Five," Esposito replied. "Me, Ryan, my fiancée Lanie, and Alexis' dad and his fiancée."

"So Alexis isn't a Guardian?" asked Steve.

Fallon shook his head. "Technically, no."

"What's the difference?" asked Steve.

"As far as we can tell," explained Fallon, "the Guardians got hit with a strong dose of pure magical energy all at once, which gave each of them the strongest and most powerful form of their abilities. Because Alexis and I were exposed to lower levels of magic over a longer period of time, we're not as strong as they are."

"Which is why you wanted to know if I could keep up with the Guardians or not," said Steve, trying to catch on to the context of what Fallon was trying to tell him.

Fallon nodded. "I can't keep up with them. Ever. They don't leave me in the dust like normal people, but at full speed they'll outrun me every time."

"So the Guardians are the originals and you and Alexis are...copies?"

Fallon smiled as he took a sip from his water and considered Steve's analogy. "I guess that's one way to put it, yeah." He joined Steve in staring at the skyline of the city around them. "There's a lot of people who volunteer to be a part of the Network, Captain. Good people."

"Normal people?" Steve asked quietly.

Fallon nodded. "I'm sure this goes without saying, but a lot of those people would get hurt if information about our little organization got into the wrong hands..."

Steve waved off the warning. "Mr. Fallon, *nothing* is more important to me than Alexis' safety, I can promise you that. Your secrets are safe with me."

* * *

**_One month later..._**

The wedding had been everything that Javier Esposito had dreamed of...and much, much more. And now, with the smooth tones of the legendary Frank Sinatra echoing throughout the reception tent, he was having his first dance with his soulmate as husband and wife. "Think we can get Castle to stop time?" he asked Lanie, caressing the smooth muscles of her back as they swayed on the dance floor. "Maybe let us have this moment for a century or two..."

Lanie smiled and played with the hairs on the back of her husband's neck. "Look at the the bright side, honey," she teased, "in about eighty years we get to do this all over again."

"I can't wait," Esposito agreed with a smile. He leaned in to kiss his wife...

The thundering boom of a giant explosion stopped the reception in its tracks. The guests poured out of the tent to investigate the cause of the explosion. Five of the guests seemed to be particularly interested in the cause of the explosion. _Beckett,_ Ryan asked through the Guardian's mind-link, _can you see what happened?_

Former NYPD detective Kate Beckett was already staring intently to the west, seeing things that none of the other party guests were able to see. _There's a column of blue light,_ she replied, _I think it's in Manhattan._

_It's in Manhattan,_ all right, Castle chimed in from the main house, _it's all over the news. Some sort of alien attack._

_Alien attack?_ asked Esposito. _Why weren't we called in?_

_Only one reason I can think of_, Ryan replied. He reached out with his mind until he made contact with one of the most conspicuously absent members of the Network. _Steve? Are you in Manhattan? What's going on?_

On Madison Avenue, just south of Grand Central Station, Captain America was catching his breath after saving an office building full of people from a Chitauri bomb. _Kevin?_ he asked through the telepathic connection, _Aren't you guys still in the Hamptons?_

_Yeah_, Ryan replied, _but we can be there in a flash..._

_NO! _

The intensity of Steve's objection cause Ryan to flinch. _Steve? Castle's seeing television reports of an alien attack. What's going on?_

Captain America looked up and down Madison Avenue, checking to see if any more Chitauri were headed in his direction. _The reports are correct_, he replied.

Ryan steeled himself for the upcoming battle. _Okay, Castle, go track down Fallon and Katya. We need to get back to Manhattan..._

_NO!_ Steve stopped Ryan with an urgent insistence that snapped the younger man out of his train of thought. _You guys can't come back to the city. Not yet._

_Why not?_ asked Esposito.

_There are other forces at work here, _Steve insisted, _forces I don't entirely trust..._

_SHIELD?_ Ryan asked, remembering a few flashes of Steve's early modern memories.

Steve sent an image of himself nodding through the mind-link. _I made a promise to keep your secrets to protect Alexis safe. SHIELD and their associates can help me stop this attack but I can't let you help. Not this time. It would put too much at stake._

Reluctantly, after feeling the depth of Steve's emotions and convictions, Ryan agreed. _Just remember that if you don't make it I'll have Beckett bring me across to kill you a second time..._

_I'll keep that in mind, Kevin,_ Steve teased through the mind-link. Confident that his girlfriend and her team would stay a safe distance away from Manhattan, Steve turned his attention back to more urgent matters and took off up Madison Avenue to check on the progress of his fellow Avengers.

* * *

**_I really, really would love to hear your comments. I haven't tried to write a crossover because it felt like nobody read them. So the more of you who leave comments (good, bad or indifferent), the more tempted I'll be to keep the story going..._**


	2. Chapter 2

_**Thank you all for all the wonderful comments on the prologue! Hope you guys enjoy this chapter just as much as you did the last one...**_

* * *

He had always loved Times Square. There was an energy to the place; standing in the middle of the "Crossroads of the World" always made him feel like he was standing in the middle of the beating heart of the world's greatest city. From the first time he had been allowed out of the house on his own, he had felt like he could sit near the TKTS building and just watch the world go by. For hours on end.

But now? Now he loved Times Square even more. Every time he brushed up against somebody he learned everything about them. Their name. Their spouse's name. How many kids they had. And while experiencing the days that those kids were born could be considered an...unpleasant side effect, the fact that he also remembered every one of those brat's social security numbers...well, that almost made up for it.

He was going to make a small fortune.

On second thought...he was going to make a very *large* fortune.

He took his lucky stone out of his pocket, kissing it and rubbing the odd engravings for what must have been the thousandth time since he had found it washed up by the Central Park reservoir a week earlier. He had no idea why the stone had caught his eye that day or how the stone connected to his new found good fortune...

But the last thing he was ever going to do was look a gift horse in the mouth. Even if the horse was a 2-inch rock with stars carved on it.

* * *

Ryan paced the halls of the hospital emergency room, waiting for his two teammates to arrive. He kept anxiously checking his watch as he cautiously studied the hive of activity going on around him. When his fellow Guardians finally arrived, it was clear that Ryan had no particular fondness for either of them...or whatever excuse they were planning to come up with. "You're late. Again."

"Sorry," Lanie apologized as she fixed her hair. "We, uh...we ran into traffic."

"Uh huh," Ryan countered warily. He quickly smiled, though, forgiving his friends easily. "Look, guys, I get it. I was a newlywed once too, y'know. But next time you start getting tempted to take a couple minutes, just remember that the longer you take, the more likely I'll be to want to put your husband in the middle of Times Square with a 'free hugs' sign around his neck."

"Okay, okay," said Esposito, blowing off his parnter's teasing threat. "So what d'we got?"

Ryan turned to head toward the bay where their victim was waiting. "Name's Monique Windstock. She was brought in unconscious, showing burns on the neck and chest that suggested that she had been electrocuted. But there'a just one problem with that theory..."

Esposito completed his partner's thought immediately. "She's still alive?" Ryan nodded.

"Another wizard victim?" asked Lanie. Ryan nodded again. "And Castle and Alexis..."

"Both accounted for," Ryan replied to Lanie's unasked question.

The trio walked into Monique's emergency room bay and closed the curtain behind them. Closing her eyes to focus her concentration, Lanie touched Monique on her bare calf, instantly entering an examination trance. "The damage to her body is consistent with severe electrocution," she announced as she pulled out of the trance. "She *should* be dead..."

"Except that she was attacked by a wizard," said Ryan.

Lanie nodded. "Just give me a couple of minutes," she suggested. Closing her eyes, Lanie went back into the healing trance as soon as she touched Monique's ankle. "Okay, I repaired enough of the damage that you should be able to get her memories now..."

Esposito recognized his cue. He took Monique's hand, flipping through her recent memories until he found the one he was looking for. "We've finally caught a break with this one," he told his fellow Guardians, "she saw her attacker."

"Let's get back to the warehouse," Ryan suggested to the group. "We can run an artist's sketch through facial recognition, see if anything pops."

His two partners nodded in agreement. The trio turned to leave, and opened the curtain to find a nurse staring at them. "Can I help you?" the nurse asked sternly, clearly annoyed at seeing three strangers in the room with her patient.

Ryan, Lanie and Esposito each produced a badge for the nurse's inspection. "Homeland Security," Ryan announced, not bothering to give their names. "We needed to ask Ms. Windstock some questions about the man who attacked her this evening."

"Well you're not going to get any answers out of her any time soon," the nurse insisted. "I'm here to take Ms. Windstock up to intensive care. If you'll excuse me..."

"That's all right, ma'am," said Ryan, blowing off the nurse's objections. "We've got everything we need. We were just leaving."

The nurse watched, bewildered, as the three Guardians filed past her and left the Emergency Room. _How could they possibly have gotten anything out of this woman, _thought the nurse, _it's going to be weeks before she even wakes up, if she wakes up at all..._

When Monique Winstock opened her eyes with a groan, all thoughts of suspicious agents were brushed aside in favor of treating their latest 'miracle' patient.

* * *

The warehouse bullpen didn't have much: a half-dozen desks, a couple of coat rack trees, a dry-erase wall to use as a case board, and an exact duplicate of both the 12th precinct coffee maker and Castle's beloved espresso machine. It was starkly lit, it was often empty, and it was just too quiet most of the time. And yet, for a team full of people who received most of their training in law enforcement, it was often just the place for the Guardians to get their thoughts in order during a particularly tough case.

As Ryan and Esposito opened the door to their bullpen, the case wall was filled with information on their three previous wizard attack victims. Ryan started to tape up the pictures of the latest attack, along with a copy of the artist's sketch based on Esposito's memories. He then sat on the edge of Castle's desk, staring at the board to see if the newly collected pieces did anything to pull the puzzle together.

The other Guardians found Ryan in this position when they entered the room fifteen minutes later. "Any luck?" asked Beckett.

Ryan shook his head. "None. Four attacks and I still can't find any connection between our victims."

"Except that they survived being attacked by a wizard," said Castle.

"And we know that you and Alexis *aren't* the attackers," Esposito added, "because you both have alibis for two of the attacks."

"Which means someone got flipped," said Ryan. "But who? And how?"

Esposito sighed, sharing his partner's frustration. "We figure out the common thread between our four victims, we'll probably find that wizard."

"Or," a voice suggested at the doorway, "we could go after the wizard who attacked Monique Windstock." The Guardians looked over to see Director Fallon standing just outside the bullpen, holding a piece of paper. "Facial recognition just came back," he told them. "His name is Thomas Al-Jawari. Homeland Security's been tracking him for almost a year. We knew he had been looking to hook up with a terror cell...but three months ago he just dropped off the radar."

"And the attacks began shortly after that," said Castle.

Fallon nodded. "Let's bring him in. Even if he's not the source of the problem, maybe he can point us to it."

* * *

The corner of 54th Street and 9th Avenue was not a place where anyone would want to congregate under the best of circumstances. And under other circumstances...under the worst of circumstances the best thing about the neighborhood was that the hospital two short blocks away.

Five people meeting on the corner of 54th and 9th to study the comings and goings at the nearby apartment building might have been something that people would have found suspicious. If anyone had been able to notice them at all. _Okay_, Ryan projected into the group's mind-link, _do we have any idea what power level we're dealing with here?_

_Besides the energy attacks?_ asked Esposito.

Beckett stretched her hearing out as far as she could. _I don't hear him conjuring anything,_ she told them. _Maybe all he can do is throw lightning..._

Castle studied his fiancée, surprised by her comments. _How can you tell?_

_There's this whooshing sound that happens when you make something appear out of thin air,_ Beckett replied. _It's real quiet, even for me, but it's always there, and I haven't heard it in Al-Jawari's place since we got here._

_Doesn't mean we're not dealing with a teleporter,_ Fallon insisted. _Can you stop him from getting away if he tries?_

Castle nodded. _I have a new shield spell I've been testing. It should do the job._

_All right,_ Fallon announced to the group, _then let's get this guy._ The team crossed the street and walked through the entrance to Al-Jawari's building, stopping only long enough to let Castle magically 'pick' the lock on the door. The group quietly climbed one flight of stairs, getting into the hallway so Castle could familiarize himself with the building's layout, then the wizard blinked his team to the sixth floor.

Once the team materialized at their destination, they assumed their positions in a quiet hurry. Beckett and Fallon moved to one side of the door to apartment 6F, while Ryan and Esposito flanked them on the other side. Castle stood square to the doorway, focusing his energy on what he needed to do. _Our guy's definitely in the apartment_? When Ryan and Beckett both nodded, the Sìfāng whispered the first words any of them had spoken since the beginning of the mission. "alligaveritis Huius cubiculi..." A blue flash of energy surrounded the apartment, then disappeared as the front door unlocked with a soft click. _I can't go in now, _he announced through the mind-link. _Nobody's powers will work in that apartment for the next hour, which means shields won't work._

_But he can't get away either, right?_ asked Esposito.

When Castle nodded, Fallon started the count through the mind-link. _3...2...1...Go!_

Ryan opened the door and the four members of the team quietly filed in to the apartment to surround Al-Jawari, who was sitting on his couch, watching TV. "Can I help you?" he asked the group, without getting up.

"Thomas Al-Jawari?" asked Fallon. It wasn't a question anyone expected an answer to. "You need to come with us. We need you to answer a few questions."

Al-Jawari laughed loudly. "You expect to just walk in here and have me walk out with you even though I have no idea who you are and none of you are carrying weapons? Do you have any idea who you're dealing with?" He flung his hands casually up over his head, expecting the four people around him to collapse, twitching in spasms after being electrocuted.

Nothing happened.

Al-Jawari stood up, confused. He flung his hands up again, watching for any reaction from the four other people in the room.

Still nothing.

Fear shot through Al-Jawari, causing the hairs on the back of his neck to stand on end. He flung his hands up one more time in a futile effort to do *something* before his hands were forcibly pulled behind his back and surrounded by handcuffs. "My God," he gasped out in amazement, "who the hell are you people?"

Castle smirked as the members of his team escorted Al-Jawari out of the apartment. Not one to resist an opportunity, the Sìfāng pulled a pair of dark Ray-ban sunglasses out of his pocket. "Just call us the Men in Black," he said.

Before all six of them disappeared.

* * *

The first time that Castle and the detectives at the 12th Precinct had met Mark Fallon, he had not made a good impression...primarily because of his rather aggressive interrogation techniques. The consensus opinion at the time was that Fallon's angry, violent attitude was ineffective at best and often turned potentially valuable assets into sworn enemies after a single round of questioning.

Now, though...the Guardians were starting to appreciate the source of Fallon's old attitudes. The group studied the sullen figure sitting angry and silent in Castle's training-room-turned-interrogation 'box'. "Has he said anything since we left him in there?" asked Beckett.

"Nope," Fallon replied, "don't expect he will, either."

"Do we really need him to?"

"Not when it comes to finding out who he works for," Castle volunteered as he joined the conversation, "but we need to find out what he's capable of. And for that...we might need him to be willing to at least work with us."

Beckett considered Castle's words carefully. "What *are* we going to do with him? He's tried to kill three people. His body's a weapon now. It's not like we can just throw him in the general population after we're done with him."

"The only real problem would be if he were a teleporter," countered Fallon. "And if he had that particular talent we would have discovered it by now..."

"Because he would have already tried to get away," Castle agreed, completing Fallon's point. "I haven't bound that room yet. If he knew he could teleport, we wouldn't be watching him right now. We'd be looking for him again."

Ryan and Esposito joined the rest of the group watching Al-Jawari in the box. "So what's the plan?" asked Esposito.

"I definitely think you should go in the box, Master Xiānshī," Fallon replied. "My only question is who to send in with you. Master Mùshī, can you work on his thoughts from out here?"

Ryan nodded. "Not a problem."

"Then Master Sìfāng should go in with Master Xiānzhī," Fallon decided. "We need to find out if Al-Jawari has any other abilities beyond basic energy manipulation. Master Mùshī, can you provoke him, try to give him ideas?" Ryan nodded again, and the Guardians worked to put Fallon's plan into action.

Castle and Esposito walked through the coffin door to face their suspect. "Mr. Al-Jawari?" asked Esposito, not really expecting an answer. "Do you know why you're here?"

Ryan used his memories of Al-Jawari's capture to copy his voice. _Zap 'em,_ he projected into their suspect's mind, _they deserve it._

Al-Jawari took his 'own' advice, firing energy bolts at the two men in the room with him. His eyes widened as the energy dissipated harmlessly, absorbed by the shields Castle had projected. "Who are you people?" he asked, his voice starting to tremble with fear. "What the hell is this place?"

"We'll get to that," Esposito replied with a casual smirk. He casually walked behind Al-Jawari, squeezing the man's shoulder as he leaned in close to the man's ear. "We know who *you* are, Thomas. What you wanted to do. How you tried to kill those women..."

Al-Jawari's thoughts hung, dumbfounded, on Esposito's last sentence. "*Tried* to kill? Y-you mean they're still alive?"

Castle nodded, raising an eyebrow in mock surprise. "You mean you didn't know? Wow..."

_Oh man, this is bad_, Ryan projected into Al-Jawari's mind. _I mean if they lived then they can identify me and then...I gotta get out of here..._

The planted panic worked like a charm. Al-Jawari jumped up from his chair and ran for the open door behind where Castle was standing. The door closed under its own power, causing Al-Jawari to yelp as his fear reached an entirely new level. "H-h-how did...how did you do that?" he stammered out nervously.

The fear-filled question was all that Fallon needed to hear. "I've heard enough, I think," Fallon declared. "He's not powerful enough to be a flight risk."

"Think he's broken enough to cooperate with us?" asked Beckett.

"Only one way to find out," Ryan shrugged. _Can you guys get him to give up how he got flipped?_

Esposito nodded, and started to open his mouth to question Al-Jawari when the younger man beat him to it. "It's just not possible," Al-Jawari exclaimed as he backed down, crawling slowly back to his chair. "There's no way the Prophet would have seen a cop," he muttered under his breath. "No friggin' way..."

The Guardians all heard Al-Jawari's exclamation. "Who's the Prophet?" asked Esposito.

"I...I only met him once," Al-Jawari replied nervously. "I don't even know his real name. B-b-but...but when Aarif took me to meet him, he told us we were going to become all-powerful gods, just like him..."

Castle and Esposito seized on the opportunity presented to them. Esposito slipped behind Al-Jawari's chair and leaned in until his face was less than two inches away from their suspect's ear. It was then, and only then, that Esposito asked the question that was on the mind of all the Guardians...

"Thomas? Who's Aarif?"

* * *

Fallon stormed into the bullpen like a man on a mission. The Guardians watched their 'boss' as he tossed a a thick file down on Castle's desk. "Our man's name is Aarif Nazari," Fallon announced to the group. "He's been on Homeland Security's radar for about six months...until a week ago, when he dropped off the map entirely."

"Which is when he paid a visit to this Prophet," added Esposito.

Fallon nodded. "This would be my suspicion as well. It takes money to drop off the grid like Nazari did, so I can only assume this Prophet is now bankrolling his operation."

Beckett was flipping through the pages of the folder on her fiancé's desk. "There's no sign of Nazari having that kind of money prior to his disappearance?"

"None," replied Fallon.

"So if he's gone to ground," asked Esposito, "how do you propose we go after him?"

Fallon, in response to Esposito's question, focused his attention entirely on Castle. "There's been an agent working deep cover with Nazari for the past four months. I'm hoping your...connection to this agent will be able to lead us to him."

"Who are we talking about here?" asked Ryan. He quickly answered his own question, though, as a powerful wave of vivid memories and conflicting emotions hit the Mùshī. "Castle?" Ryan asked his friend, "Is that true?"

"As far as he told me," Castle replied. "But I haven't seen him since that day. To be honest, I can't even be completely certain he was telling me the truth that day." Castle turned his attention to Fallon. "Phoenix, are you telling me you knew about this all along?"

Fallon shook his head. "I only know what I was able to read in his file."

"But he *was* telling the truth?"

Fallon shrugged. "I have no idea what he told you, Master Sìfāng. But the man who helped you get Alexis out of Paris *is* your father. And I strongly suspect that we can use that genetic link to help us find Aarif."

* * *

When you get into the intelligence business, there's one fact that's drilled into you from the first day that you enter the field: the chances of living out your golden years in some retirement condo in Florida before eventually dying of old age...well, you had better odds of winning the lottery.

_Actually_, Jackson Hunt thought wryly, _I probably would have had better odds of being struck by lightning while accepting one of those giant checks for winning the lottery..._

It had been a bad, bad day for the intelligence asset. The undercover operation he had been working on for four months had gone to hell when, out of the blue, the sleeper cell's leader (a man whose trust Hunt was certain he had earned) shot out both his kneecaps. That led to six hours of a pretty impressive string of tortures as the terrorist leader tried to figure out which organization Hunt worked for. Hunt, of course, said nothing, choosing to let his agile mind focus on the far more important issues at hand: who had sold him out, why had they sold him out, and what *he* was going to do to the sellout when he found them.

Finally, though, the terrorist leader seemed to have reached his limits. "I must say, Mr. Hunt," he declared, "I am impressed. Not many men have the intestinal fortitude to withstand the things that you have experienced."

With bullets in his knees and elbows and every finger and toe broken, the only things that Jackson Hunt could move were his neck and his mouth. So he let his mouth take care of things. "Go to hell, Aarif," Hunt spat out angrily.

Aarif tilted his head just slightly toward Hunt, as if listening to the words that Hunt was *not* saying. After a few tense, quiet moments...Aarif smiled. "You are wondering who betrayed you," Aarif declared.

Hunt had to forcibly keep himself from flinching. "Gee," he countered sarcastically, "and here I thought you were just doing this for fun..."

Aarif let out a hearty chuckle before his expression turned deadly serious. "You think I am doing this for fun? This is in no way 'fun' for me, Mr. Hunt. Until this morning I considered you to be a trustworthy friend. And then I discovered who you *really* are." Aarif took the .357 Magnum from its resting place on the card table, flipping open the cylinder to load six new bullets into the weapon. The clicking spin of the cylinder echoed oddly in the large, empty space of the warehouse. "I would say that this will hurt me more than it will hurt you," Aarif declared casually, "but in this case, I believe that putting you out of your misery may be doing you a kindness."

Hunt felt the cool of the gun's metal chamber against his temple and braced himself for the end. A thousand thoughts ran through Hunt's mind in the split second after Aarif cocked the hammer of his weapon...most of them focused on the family who he barely knew. The son and granddaughter he had abandoned, willingly, in order to protect them from the terrible, dangerous world that he lived in. The same world that he was about to die in...and his family would never know.

Out of the thousand thoughts that were running through the mind of Jackson Hunt at that moment...none of those thoughts were of rescue. So the absolute last thing that Hunt could have possibly imagined was a two man-team throwing blue balls of energy around the room from their open, bare hands. A second two-man team was running around the room with super-human speed, knocking out the survivors of the dozen men that had been holding him hostage and zip-tying the wrists and ankles of every man, dead or alive.

The operation was over within seconds, leaving Hunt as the last survivor of the men who had been in the room before the four-man team arrived. The ball-throwers rushed to his side, checking on his injuries...and probably checking to find out if he was still alive. He groaned quietly to save them the guesswork.

Four heads shot up in response to Hunt's groans. "Oh thank God," one of ball throwers sighed with relief, "he's alive."

"He's hurt, though, dad. Really hurt."

Idly, Hunt was starting to wonder if he was hearing things. The faces of the ball-throwers were ones that he knew he didn't recognize. _So why do they sound just like Richard and Alexis..._

The Richard sound-alike turned his attention to one of the zip-tyers. "Xiānzhī?"

"The Yīzhì is waiting for us," the Xiānshī replied. "She'll start working on him as soon as we get back."

The instant change from one location to another was disorienting for the seriously injured man. Hunt noticed that he had somehow gone left the warehouse where Aarif had been holding him. But where the other warehouse has been deathly quiet and still, this warehouse was abuzz with life and activity. So much so that the jarring contrast between the two environments caused Jackson Hunt to faint as the relief of finally being out of danger allowed him to give in to the pain caused by his injuries.

* * *

**_Don't forget to leave comments! I really, really want to hear what you think!_**


	3. Chapter 3

Clint 'Hawkeye' Barton paced the length of the private patient room anxiously. His partner, Natasha Romanoff, lay comatose in the hospital bed just steps away from him.

He was feeling completely powerless. And there was no feeling he hated more.

A pair of imposing figures darkened the doorway to the room. "Agent Barton," one of the men said in greeting.

Barton kept his gaze trained on his partner even as he greeted the man at the door. "Director Fury," he greeted the man with a voice that showed how hard it was to keep his emotions at bay.

"How is she?" asked the Director.

"Alive," replied Barton, his voice shaking slightly. He crossed the room to get to his partner's bedside, taking her limp hand in his own.

"What do the doctors say?"

Barton squeezed his partner's hand, sighing quietly when he got no responding squeeze in return. "No one knows what the hell's going on," he told Fury. "By every test they have, she should be dead."

SHIELD Director Nick Fury let his eyes rest on the unnaturally still figure of his toughest agent. There was only one question consuming his thoughts. "What the hell happened out there, Hawkeye?"

Barton could only shrug. "Bishara got the drop on us," he told Fury. "We had no idea he had that kind of power."

Fury's eyes widened just slightly at Barton's last comment. "That's not like her at all," he said. "You're sure she didn't know?"

Barton nodded. "She asked him a couple of tame questions, trying to lead up to questioning him about the Prophet. Bishara's men were all there, so Tasha was on her best behavior; she was trying to get information, not pick a fight. But after the first two questions Bishara just went postal on us. He started swearing up and down that it would be a cold day in hell before SHIELD got the North Star, and then one of his men..."

Fury noticed the hesitation in his agent's voice. "One of his men what?"

"He started throwing lighting bolts at us, sir. I made it to cover. Tasha wasn't so lucky. He hit her first and she went down almost immediately. I thought...I thought I had lost her, sir."

"Bishara's muscle was throwing *lightning bolts* around the room?" asked Fury, not really believing what he was hearing. Barton nodded, which caused the two men to turn their attention to the third man who had entered the room with the Director. "Thor?" Fury asked the Norse God. "Any thoughts?"

Thor shook his head. "Hawkeye's tale speaks of magic entering your world, Director. With my brother still imprisoned...I know not what to make of that."

"So we're fighting magic?" asked Fury.

"I believe you may be, yes," Thor replied.

"And how the hell am I supposed to do that..." grumbled Fury.

A groan from the woman in the bed stifled any further attempts at conversation. "Tasha?" exclaimed Barton, his voice filling with hope.

"Agent Romanoff," Fury greeted the woman in the hospital bed with what he could only hope passed for a smile. "It's good to see you awake."

Natasha replied with a weak, raspy groan. "Easy, Tasha," said Barton, "the doctors said your throat would be really dried out if...if you woke up." His voice trailed off as the uncertainty of Natasha's earlier prognosis crept into his voice. "Let me...let me get you some ice chips."

The Black Widow let the ice chips slide down her throat as Clint fed them to her. Once the moisture in her throat made talking less of a monumental effort, she turned to the man she had long thought of as her partner. "Clint?" she asked at a voice still barely above a whisper, "Where..."

"We're back on the ship," Clint replied, cutting Natasha off so she had to talk as little as possible. "Bishara got away."

Natasha's eyes widened at the news before she leaned her head back against the cool of her metal headboard. "Why...?"

"One of Bishara's men was able to...electrocute you before you could get a shot off against him," Clint replied, studying his partner's face to see how she took the information.

Natasha's face showed that she remembered the moment that Clint was telling her; it did nothing, however, to diminish her bewilderment at what she was remembering. "Lightning?" Clint nodded. "How?" When Clint shook his head, Natasha turned to Thor. "You?"

Thor shook his head. "I am at a loss as to any explanation for what you experienced, Natasha. Even on my world that amount of power can only come from the Allfather himself."

Natasha sat up a little straighter, her strength slowly returning to her. "Do we have any leads on where Bishara is now..."

Fury cut her off, gently laying a hand on his agent's shoulder to push her back to a more relaxed position. "Natasha, take it easy. I can't let you go back out after him just yet. I'm sending Thor out with Agent Barton for now."

Natasha's face flashed brief fury. "Why not?"

"You died, Natasha," Clint replied, his voice choking on the words. "Or at least as close to it as you could have come."

Natasha sighed, finally understanding why her partner had been so doting on her when she woke up. She turned to Fury for further direction. "So how long do I have to stay on the bench, coach?"

"Until the doctor's give their okay for you to go back in the field, Agent Romanoff," said Fury. His voice softened as he started to express his own feelings on the day's events. "We almost lost you out there today, Natasha. I'm not going to take any chances by sending you out there again before you're a hundred percent ready."

Natasha nodded, picking up on her boss' emotions as she processed his decision. It had been obvious to everyone in SHIELD how much the death of Phil Coulson had affected the director, and Natasha was getting the distinct impression that Coulson's ghost had some influence on Fury's unusual hesistation. "All right, sir," she relented, deciding not to push the matter. "I'll try to take it easy."

"Good answer, Tasha," Clint said, his voice showing his attempts to be reassuring. With his boss standing over his shoulder, Clint fought the urge to kiss his partner on the top of her forehead; instead, he squeezed her hand as a gesture of goodbye before the three men left the room.

Once out of the Black Widow's highly sensitive earshot, Director Fury was all business, his voice living up to the emotion represented by his name. "Find me that SOB, Hawkeye. And bring me his goddamned head on a platter. Got that?"

Clint nodded, wholeheartedly sharing his boss' sentiment. "Yes, sir."

"Good," said Fury. "I'm going to see if someone can find me a way to fight these damn wizards and get rid of them once and for all."

* * *

When Jackson Hunt awakened, the first thing that he noticed was that the light wasn't nearly as bright as he was expecting. He had always heard that when you died, you moved toward some sort of bright light, and he knew from experience that being in a hospital meant that you woke up to an obnoxious amount of bright light. So to wake up to gentle, dim lights...it disturbed him a little.

But what disturbed him more, though...what disturbed him the *most* was that he was feeling no pain. At all. Hunt slowly opened his eyes and took stock of his surroundings. His clothes were still ripped and bloodied, which grounded him somewhat, since it meant he wasn't in a hospital. "Probably not dreaming, either," he muttered, "I wouldn't look this terrible in my dreams..."

The room Hunt was in was small: a simply furnished bedroom with a queen-sized bed, two night tables and a table lamp. The walls were simple drywall, and thin, if the sounds coming from outside the door were any indication. He quietly opened the door a crack.

No guard. "Thank God for small favors," he muttered. Hunt crept down the hallway, keeping an ear open for anyone who might be an obstacle blocking his escape. He stopped at a corner a few feet from his room, peeking around the corner to check for enemies.

Two children barreled down the hallway, laughing joyfully and engaged in what looked to Hunt like a game of tag. Neither child could have been older than nine. _Where the hell am I?_ he thought.

The muted sounds of conversation a few doors away from his position drew Hunt to investigate his situation further. He put an ear to the door to listen to what sounded like a meeting in progress.

* * *

"Guys, guys," Fallon announced to the group at the table, "can we get this meeting started?" The Guardians at the conference table quieted down slowly as the Director got the room down to business. "First things first...Mistress Yìzhī, how's our guest of honor?"

"Sleeping, hopefully," Lanie replied. "He'd been tortured pretty badly. Even after I repaired his injuries his body seemed to be begging for sleep, like he'd gone a month without it. So I gave him a GCR and let him rest."

_GCR? _thought Hunt. _Never heard of that treatment..._

Fallon, though, didn't ask Lanie for further clarification. "What about the rest of our guests?"

"Aarif's a newborn," Ryan announced to the group. "He's been reading the thoughts of the people around him without realizing he was doing it."

_Newborn? _Hunt's thoughts caught on Ryan's statement, leaving him confused.

"Which is what led to my father's...situation?" asked Castle. Ryan nodded.

Hunt lost all thoughts of newborns and gasped as he recognized his son's voice. _Richard? What's he doing here..._

That quiet gasp was enough to alert one of the people in the conference room to Hunt's presence outside the door. Beckett raised a hand to direct the Guardians to silence, then projected her instructions into the group's mind-link. _Ryan, I think Hunt's been eavesdropping. Can you confirm it?_

Ryan opened his mind, looking for minds outside of the ones in the room, and immediately confirmed his partner's suspicions. _It's him. He's on the other side of the door._

_How is he?_ asked Castle.

_Confused, _Ryan replied.

_Wouldn't you be? _asked Alexis.

Everyone in the room nodded in agreement. _So should we open the door and bring Agent Hunt up to speed?_ asked Fallon.

_We need to...immediately,_ Ryan insisted. _He's likely to kill the next adult he runs into if he doesn't get some answers._

A wave of concern ran through the group until it hit Fallon. _I'm not surprised, _he 'told' the group. _That kind of attitude would be standard operating procedure for someone who's been a spook as long as he has. Master Mùshī, if you please..._

The door opened on its own. Hunt started to enter the room cautiously, unsure of who or what was on the other side of the apparently automatic door...

Time seemed to stand still for Jackson Hunt as the young redhead cautiously approached him. She had her mother's (and grandmother's) fiery hair, but the eyes...the way she walked...the way she carried herself...This was most definitely *his* granddaughter. "Hello, Alexis," Hunt greeted her quietly, unsure of how to proceed.

Alexis couldn't help but stare at the man in front of her. This was her dad's mysterious, long-absent father. The spy. The man who had saved her life. And her grandfather. Alexis wrapped her arms around Hunt, choking back a sob as she gave the man the biggest hug she could muster. "Hi."

Hunt pulled his arms out of Alexis' tight embrace so he could hug her back, letting the emotion of meeting his granddaughter for the first time wash over him, giving the memory a permanent place of honor in his mind. Finally, though, the moment passed, and curiosity won out out over emotion. "What are you doing here, Alexis? Where are we?"

Alexis wiped the tears away from her eyes as she pulled away from her grandfather's embrace and turned back to the conference table. "We'll get to that. First, why don't I introduce you to everybody?" Hunt nodded, letting Alexis take the lead. "Well," she began, "you've already met dad. Next to him is his partner and fiancée, Kate..."

"Beckett," Hunt finished Alexis' sentence, cutting her off.

Beckett got up to shake the hand of her future father-in-law. "Rick told me you knew who I was, Agent Hunt. It's nice to finally meet you."

"It's nice to finally meet you as well, Detective," Hunt said as he shook Beckett's outstretched hand.

A look of unspoken communication passed between everyone at the table. Alexis quickly decided to continue with the introductions without correcting her grandfather's statement. "On the other side of the table we have Kevin Ryan, Javier Esposito, and his wife, Dr. Lanie Parrish-Esposito."

Esposito nodded to acknowledge Alexis' introduction, while Ryan reached across the table to shake Hunt's hand. Hunt, though, focused his attention exclusively on the woman across the table from him. "*Doctor* Esposito? So you were the one who treated my injuries?"

When Lanie nodded, Alexis wrapped up her introductions before Hunt had a chance to press for further explanations. "And at either end of the table we have Ekaterina Petrovich and her fiancé...Director Mark Fallon."

Hunt latched on to the title immediately. "Director? So this is some sort of...government agency?"

Fallon nodded curtly. "Yes, sir."

"American?" asked Hunt. Fallon nodded again. Hunt turned his attention to his son. "You weren't working for this agency when you came to Paris..."

Castle shook his head. "The Network didn't exist at that point."

"The Network?" Hunt asked, confused. "Never heard of it."

"I'm not surprised," Fallon told him. "Very few people outside of New York do."

"So we're in New York?"

Fallon nodded. "The Bronx, to be exact."

"The Bronx..." Hunt mused, trying to process every little shred of information he had received since he regained consciousness. "What exactly is this Network?"

Fallon directed Hunt to an empty chair, encouraging everyone else to return to their seats. "Agent Hunt, the Network was created to support and protect your son, your granddaughter and the rest of the beings you see at this table."

"Protect them?" Hunt asked Fallon, growing more confused by the minute. "From who? Volkov died in Paris, and no one else knew about Richard's connection to me..."

Castle started to speak, then hesitated, trying to find the right words to begin his explanation. "Dad, there are other forces at work here besides your professional history. Things have...changed since Paris."

"Obviously," said Hunt, nodding in acknowledgement of their surroundings. "But how?"

Hunt's question was answered when Castle waved his hand and, in the blink of an eye, the agent's clothes changed. While Hunt had walked into the room wearing the same blood-stained rags he had been tortured in, now...now he was wearing a crisp, clean white button-down shirt and a comfortable, perfectly fitting pair of khakis. Even his underwear had been replaced with clean, high-end silk boxers. "N-n-nice trick..." Hunt stammered out nervously. It was then that Hunt's agile mind remembered the odder aspects of the raid that had won his freedom. "Oh my God...that *was* you that I heard in the warehouse," he exclaimed. Castle and Alexis both nodded. "How?"

"We're wizards now, dad," Castle declared.

Hunt's eyes widened in disbelief. "Wizards?"

Castle and Alexis both nodded again. "We're the successors of an ancient group called the Guardians of Shangri La," said Castle.

"And I thought I'd heard everything..." Hunt muttered under his breath.

Alexis' face fell when she saw her grandfather's expression. "You don't believe us, do you..."

Hunt countered Alexis' discouragement immediately. "No! No...I'm just trying to wrap my head around what you're telling me." It was then that one of the bigger surprises of the day worked its way to the front of Hunt's mind, demanding an explanation. He turned to Lanie. "Doctor Esposito?"

"Yes?" replied Lanie.

"When all of you brought me in here," asked Hunt, "how long was I out for?"

"About an hour," Lanie replied. "A lot less than I thought you'd sleep, to be honest."

Hunt shook his head, fighting to understand what Lanie had just told him. "I've always been a bit of an insomniac," he muttered as his mind worked on the problem. "I was only out for an *hour*?" Lanie nodded. "So you didn't just treat my injuries...you *healed* them?"

"I did," Lanie replied simply.

Hunt was starting to appreciate the need to protect these extraordinary men and women. "Th-thank you," he told Lanie, words suddenly failing him.

"Anything for family," Lanie responded with a smile.

"Family..." said Hunt, still trying to process what he was hearing. "Is that why I'm here? Because I'm Richard's father?"

The rest of the group around the table started to fidget uncomfortably. Hunt noticed immediately, and the change in tone connected with something he had overheard while eavesdropping. "You guys weren't there to rescue *me*, were you? You were there for Aarif."

Ryan nodded. "Over the past couple of months, we've been tracking more and more people who have developed abilities similar to ours. Aarif is one of those people."

"Aarif was reading minds, you said?" asked Hunt. Ryan nodded again, and Hunt turned to his granddaughter. "So can you two read minds as well, then?"

Alexis shook her head as Ryan answered Hunt's question. "Not them, sir. Me."

"You, Mr. Ryan?" Hunt asked incredulously. "You read minds?"

Alexis nodded, answering her grandfather's question. "He can project thoughts into people's heads, as well. That why you didn't recognize us when we rescued you."

Hunt shook his head in disbelief, then turned back to his granddaughter...only to discover he was no longer staring into his granddaughter's eyes. "Alexis?" Hunt gasped out in disbelief. The young man in front of him nodded. Hunt blinked...

...and Alexis was in front of him again. Hunt turned back to Ryan for an explanation. "Alexis has been sitting next to me this whole time?"

Ryan nodded. "I just made you *think* she was someone else, that's all."

"Wow..." Hunt exclaimed in amazement. "Could Aarif do that, as well?"

Ryan shook his head. "No. Aarif can only read minds, that's it."

"And he didn't realize he was doing it?" Ryan nodded. "That's how he caught on to me, then," said Hunt. "He read my thoughts."

Ryan nodded again. "In his mind, it's as if you told him your thoughts yourself."

"And he didn't know he was doing it?" Hunt repeated.

"He had no idea," replied Ryan.

With the meeting now firmly focused back on the case, Fallon turned to the man he was looking to get information from. "Master Xiānzhī? What did you get from Aarif?"

"He changed at the same time as Al-Jawari," replied Esposito. "Shortly after the meeting with this Prophet guy."

Hunt shook his head, clearly confused by the information Esposito was bringing to the table. "Okay, first...how do *you* know what was in Aarif's memories?"

"Ryan's abilities only work on active thoughts," Esposito replied. "I read and retain memories."

"Is that why you didn't shake my hand earlier?" asked Hunt.

Esposito nodded. "Given what I know of your history, I didn't want to read your memories without permission."

Hunt appreciated the respect behind the gesture. "Thank you," he told Esposito. Hunt then turned his attention to *what* Esposito had told him. "And did you say this happened after he met with the Prophet?"

Esposito nodded. Ryan caught a brief flash of a thought running through Hunt's mind. "You've heard that name before."

"I have," said Hunt. "Lately the Prophet's become known as the terrorist equivalent to Fort Knox. My agency believes he's bankrolled at least a dozen plots in the past month alone. That's why I was sent undercover to work on Aarif. I was hoping I could gain enough of his trust to get into a meeting with this guy."

"That's not all he's done," Fallon added. "Aarif is the second person we've captured who developed abilities after meeting with this Prophet. That can't be a coincidence."

Hunt noticed the tension radiating off of Fallon. "I take it the other guy wasn't a mind reader."

Castle shook his head. "Do you know a man named Thomas Al-Jawari?"

Hunt nodded. "He's one of Aarif's henchmen. I was kind of surprised that *he* wasn't the one torturing me."

"Be glad he wasn't," Alexis told her grandfather. "Al-Jawari developed abilities that are closer to mine and dad's."

Hunt shuddered. "If Al-Jawari had been torturing me, I would have been dead, then?"

Fallon shook his head. "No. But you would have wished you were. Al-Jawari has sent one woman into an intensive care coma and at least three other women have been attacked that we know of. Since Al-Jawari has an alibi for the first attack..."

"You think there might be others like him out there," said Hunt.

Esposito nodded. "Think you might be able to help us find this guy, Agent Hunt?"

Hunt took a minute to consider the abilities of the group around him. Then he thought about the chaos that be caused in the world if random terrorists suddenly developed those same abilities. Hunt stood up and offered his hand to Esposito. "I'll be happy to help in every way that I can."

Esposito shook Hunt's hand, copying all the operative's memories in the span of the gesture. His eyes then rolled back in his head slightly as he cross-referenced Hunt's recent memories with the memories of both Aarif and Al-Jawari.

Fallon watched Esposito's process with undisguised concern. "Master Xiānzhī...?"

Esposito shushed the director, his focus exclusively devoted to his mental efforts. It took less than a second, though, before his eyes settled down and his attention returned to the group around him. "Aarif brought one hell of an entourage to see the Prophet," Esposito announced to the group. "I've got the names of at least a half dozen men who went to this meeting."

"Why don't you split the list with the Master Mùshī," Fallon suggested, "see if we can get a read on where these guys might have wound up." A cryptic nod from his fiancėe, though, stopped the meeting from going any further than that. "Why don't we re-convene after we have that information?"

The rest of the group nodded in acceptance of the idea, and the meeting slowly started to break up. Alexis carefully studied the thousand emotions running across her grandfather's face. "It's a lot to take in all at once, huh?"

Alexis' sincere question pulled Hunt out of his emotional overload. As he studied the concerned face of his granddaughter, a question floated to the front of Hunt's thoughts. "Does your grandmother know about all of this?"

A voice spoke up from behind Jackson Hunt...one that he had thought he would never get the opportunity to hear again. "Yes, I do, darling," the woman said, the voice sending a chill down Hunt's spine. He turned around to look directly into the deep, piercing blue eyes of the one great lost love of his life.

"Hello, Richard," Martha greeted Hunt quietly. "It's good to see you again."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hi everyone! Sorry this took so long. The writer's perfect storm of writer's block and real life issues came up to whomp me. I'm hoping that posting *something* will help get me past both. Even if it's much shorter than I would like...**

* * *

Jackson Hunt suddenly found himself at a loss for words. "Hello, Martha," he finally greeted her quietly. "It's good to see you."

Martha didn't respond to Hunt's greeting. Instead, she crossed the room in a few elegant strides...and slapped him. She slapped Hunt across the left cheek so hard that his right cheek stung from the force of the blow.

Hunt rubbed his left cheek, trying and failing to massage away the sting from Martha's attack. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the two intensely interested observers who were still in the room with them, staring at their family matriarch in open-mouthed shock. "Richard," he asked Castle, "could I possibly have a few moments alone with your mother, please?"

The energy in the room was clearly running in Martha's favor. Castle turned to his mother, silently asking for *her* permission to leave the room. "Richard, darling," Martha replied to the unspoken question, "why don't you take Alexis and catch up to the others in the bullpen..."

Castle and Alexis quietly nodded, acknowledging Martha's request before leaving...father and daughter too stunned by the cold fury in Martha's expression to speak in response. Once father and daughter left, though, Martha turned all of her fury back to her old flame. "Richard Alexander, I have one question I want to ask you, and I want you to answer me honestly. Can you do that?"

"Depends on the question," Hunt replied coolly.

Martha rolled her eyes. "Always so cryptic," she muttered under her breath. Martha then fixed her gaze intently on the man she had once loved. "Richard, were you ever going to come back to me? To *us*?"

Jackson sighed, knowing how little he liked the answer to that question. "Martha...with my job, I've made enemies. A lot of enemies. And they tend to hold very long grudges..."

"And one of those grudges was the reason that Alexis was kidnapped. I know, Richard. I know," said Martha, angrily cutting Hunt off for a second time.

"Martha, I was trying to protect you..."

"By leaving me alone? In Las Vegas? On the night before we were going to elope? Richard, I didn't need that kind of protecting then, and I certainly don't need it now," Martha insisted, spitting the words out in angry retort. She then paused in her tirade as a new thought struck her, taking her anger to an even higher level. "Is that even your *real* name?"

Hunt blinked, needing a second to adjust to the change in topic. "My real name?"

"Richard," said Martha. "Richard Alexander. The name I passed on to my son. The name I *thought* belonged to his father. Is that your *real* name?"

Hunt found himself unable to look Martha in the eye. "No," he replied quietly. "No, it was the cover I was using at the time."

"Figures that my fiction writing son would be named after a cover alias," Martha grumbled. She grabbed onto Hunt's chin and tilted it until she could look him in the eye once more. "And me? Was *I* just a part of Richard Alexander's cover identity..."

"No," Hunt insisted emphatically. He pulled Martha's hand away from his face and took both of her hands into his own. "Martha, when I was with you...it was the most *me* I've ever been. It was the only time I've felt comfortable being *myself* since I started this damn job. The *only* thing about our relationship that wasn't absolutely real was my name."

Martha felt the wave of blind rage recede with Hunt's honesty. "So you *did* love me? Back then?"

Hunt brushed a stray hair away from Martha's eyes as he nodded. "Did then. Still do."

Martha swallowed hard, Hunt's honest admission replacing all of her anger with a sudden attack of nerves. "You *do*? Richard, we haven't seen each other in over forty years..."

Hunt blushed. "That's not entirely true. I may have checked in on you and Richard...from time to time."

It quickly became Martha's turn to blush. "I know," she admitted. "Richard told me about the book in the Library. Casino Royale?" Hunt mouthed a silent 'oh' as Martha continued, asking, "but how often did you 'check in' on us?"

"As often as I could," Hunt replied warmly. "It wasn't much, usually about once every six months or so, but..."

"You did the best you could with the options you had available to you at the time." Martha considered what she had just said in the context of their conversation. It brought back odd memories: commercial shoots where the ad never aired, checks for jobs she never filmed, and that secretarial job... "Bynum, Hunt and Alexander..." she mused. "You didn't happen to have anything to do with why I got that job, by any chance...?"

Hunt chuckled at the old memory. "I had Jameson transfered to a post in Siberia after he fired you," he confessed. "You were supposed to have that job for as long as you wanted it."

Martha chuckled as she shared in the awkward memory. The room fell silent as she looked down at their joined hands, enjoying the warmth of the connection between them. "I never really got over you either, you know," she admitted.

Hunt couldn't resist the opportunity to tease. "Oh, so that's why you got married twice after we broke up..."

"Hey," Martha countered with her own teasing, "it's not like I was going to just wait around for you to come back to me, you know..."

Hunt suddenly started to find Martha's hands endlessly fascinating. "I wouldn't have wanted you to," he admitted quietly. "I only wanted you to be happy. That's all I've ever really wanted..."

"I would have been happy with *you*," Martha countered. "I wish you would have given us that chance..."

"Yeah, me too," said Hunt. He pulled Martha in close, wrapped his arms around her and kissed her...gently at first, then deepening the kiss as he felt Martha relax and return the kiss with equal passion.

When the couple came up for air, it felt like their world had shifted beneath them. Still, Hunt felt like he had to get in the last word in their argument. "I won't apologize for protecting you, Martha. I won't *ever* apologize for that." Hunt left their embrace and let his eyes wander over his surroundings, carefully considering everything he had seen and heard since he regained consciousness. "Although...I certainly hope you don't need protecting at the moment," he teased with a smile. "From what I understand I probably wouldn't stand a chance against this group."

"No," Martha agreed with a smile that matched her old flame's, "no, you most definitely would not."

While Hunt was starting to feel like he and Martha had resolved their differences, questions about their current situation were pushing to the front of his mind. "What are we doing *here*, Martha? Are you a part of all this?"

"Only as a volunteer," Martha replied casually, as if that was a sufficient explanation in and of itself.

Hunt's eyes widened at the last word in Martha's reply. "A top secret government agency that has *volunteers*? That's got to be a first."

"Well, we sort of came with the place," Martha joked with a wink. "This wasn't always a government agency."

"It wasn't?"

Martha shook her head. "The Network first started as a support group...people trying to convince each other they weren't seeingthings..."

"Seeing things?" Hunt shook his head in disbelief. "You mean they've used their powers in *public*?! You'd have thought that would have started a panic..."

Martha smiled, figuring the time had come to play out her hunch. "Richard!" she yelled, loud enough to be heard in the hallway.

Sure enough, the *other* Richard in Martha's life returned to the conference room, followed by his daughter. Both wizards hung their heads, embarassed at being caught eavesdropping. "How'd you know we were listening?" asked Alexis.

"Because *I* would have, in your shoes," Martha replied, smiling. "You both heard everything, I take it?"

Castle nodded, turning to answer Hunt's question as proof. "None of us can affect memory or free will for more than a moment or two. While I can easily destroy any evidence of whatever we do, we can do nothing about what witnesses might have seen."

Hunt caught on immediately. "And when people couldn't corroborate their memories with physical evidence, they sought out other witnesses to verify the evidence of what they saw and heard."

Martha nodded in agreement. "Once we discovered what was going on, though, and all of the history behind it...we all went from being witnesses to being informal 'sidekicks'. Everyone here pitches in whatever way they can."

"And what do *you* do around here?" Hunt asked Martha, as his thoughts went back to his still-smarting left cheek. "That slap isn't your superpower, is it?"

"No, darling," Martha replied, grinning wickedly, "that was more of a...learned skill. For the Network, I coordinate information gathering and train the agents to be more effective when going undercover." Hunt let out a low whistle, clearly impressed. Martha picked up on the gesture immediately. "Not the answer you were expecting, was it?"

"Most definitely not," replied Hunt with a slight chuckle. His tone, however, quickly turned far more sincere. "Although I probably shouldn't have expected anything less out of you. You've always been quite the force to be reckoned with."

Martha smiled and squeezed Hunt's hand. "I suppose that *is* true," she mused, her voice lightly joking in a self-congratulatory manner.

Alexis was finding it impossible to stop smiling, her heart overflowing with joy at seeing one of the mysterious missing pieces of her family click into place. That feeling lasted only a moment, though, when she remembered why her grandmother had entered the conference room in the first place. "Actually, Grams, that's why I called you," she told Martha. "I think we're going to need your help with this case."

Martha's ears perked up at the request. "The 'newborns', right? What's going on?"

"The last one we ran into wasn't a wizard, mother," Castle replied. "He was a telepath."

Hunt latched on to the term he remembered hearing earlier. "Ryan mentioned newborns earlier...when you guys were talking about Aarif?"

"The predisposition toward having our abilities is genetic," Alexis explained. "But no one is born with them right away. You have to get exposed to massive amounts of magic before they'll emerge. So when we find someone whose genetic switch has been 'flipped', we've been calling them newborns."

"You were one of these newborns, Alexis?" asked Hunt.

Alexis nodded. "Until a few weeks ago, the only other newborn I've ever met is a woman who the Guardians helped on a case and got caught in the crossfire. We figured the Network would catch any other newborns as they emerged because you had to be around the Guardians to be exposed to enough energy to get flipped. But this case..."

"The Prophet," exclaimed Hunt, putting the pieces together, "you think that the Prophet has somehow gotten access to a source of this energy. One that's strong enough to cause anyone who has this gene to develop powers."

Castle and Alexis both nodded in agreement, and Castle turned to his mother. "I'm sure you understand the problems this might cause..."

"Of course," Martha agreed immediately. "I'll talk with Kevin and Katya, see if we can come up with some techniques."

"Thank you," said Castle, clearly relieved at having all of his bases covered.

A quiet cough at the other end of the room got the family's attention. Castle looked over to find that his fiancée had entered the room. "Kate," said Castle in greeting, "come over and meet my father."

Beckett crossed the length of the conference room until she came face-to-face with her father-in-law-to-be. "We didn't get much of a chance to talk earlier, sir," said Beckett as she extended her hand in greeting. "After everything that's happened, it's nice to finally meet you."

"Same here..." Hunt's voice trailed off as he realized he was unsure of exactly what to call the woman in front of him.

Beckett noticed the hesitation and made an educated guess as to its source. "You can just call me Kate," she said with a gracious smile as she pulled her hand out of the handshake.

Hunt looked relieved. "Kate. It's nice to meet you, as well. I followed your career with the NYPD quite closely. You were quite the detective."

"Thank you," Beckett said with a nod, accepting the compliment.

"So did you join the agency after Richard got his powers..." Hunt's voice trailed off again as a knowing look passed between his son and his fiancée. "Did I miss something, here?" he asked the group.

"I'm a Guardian as well," Beckett informed Hunt with a gracious smile.

"Oh," Hunt mouthed quietly, blushing over his second misstep with the former detective. "My apologies, Kate..."

Beckett waved off the mistake. "That's all right. It's not like it came up at the meeting."

Hunt's curiosity quickly took over. "I hope you don't mind me asking..."

"My ability could best be described as hypersenses," Beckett explained, answering Hunt's unspoken question. "I can see, hear, taste, touch and smell at levels that the average person would belive to be completely impossible."

Hunt's eyes widened as he tried to wrap his mind around the concept. "Were you listening to our conversation, Kate?"

Beckett shook her head. "I *could* have. It's well within my physical capabilities. But over time I've learned to control my senses so they're not 'on' all the time. If I don't want to hear something I can simply tune it out."

"Thank you," Hunt responded simply, deeply impressed by the continued respect, compassion and integrity he was seeing in the Guardians' conduct.

Beckett waved off Hunt's gratitude, turning the group's attention to the news she had come to deliver. "As much as I hate to break up this little family reunion," Beckett announced, "we need you guys in the bullpen. Esposito thinks he might have come up with a plan to get us to the Prophet."

* * *

**So what do you think? I will *gladly* take any and all comments, criticisms and suggestions. Did their fight feel like it would if they ever got the chance to have it on the show? Let me know!**


	5. Chapter 5

The worst part about prison? The boredom. The complete and utter boredom. Loki sighed as he remembered a story one of his lackeys on Earth had told him about their prison system. How their system was so committed to the idea of 'rehabilitation' that you were allowed to read. Socialize. Educate yourself. *Entertain* yourself. A far cry from Asgard, where you were given just enough food to survive on, but were otherwise left to rot, alone, in a cell for the rest of your days.

The thought almost made him wish to be back on Earth.

And *that* thought was enough to make him shudder.

The god got up and paced his cell for what had to have been the fiftieth time that day. Idly, he started to wonder if he were still capable of movement beyond the confines of his shackles...should someone ever find reason to take his shackles off.

He was tired. So very, very tired. Wasting away in the three by three cell he was doomed to be confined in for the rest of his natural days. And with no allies left to help release him from his incarceration, what was left for a god of mischief to do...

A violent wind kicked up suddenly, shaking Loki out of his musings and sparking his curiosity back to life. He watched as a blue pinprick of light appeared outside of his cell and grew, swirling, until it could consume a full-grown man...or god of mischief. When the swirl of light did not move past its point of origin, though, the god relaxed, knowing that the light itself was not a weapon designed to do him harm. He considered what else it could be. A portal, perhaps? thought Loki. How interesting...

A being stepped out of the portal, quietly walking to within feet of the bars of Loki's prison cell. He appeared to be of an advanced age, and looked, to Loki, almost like a man from the Earth region called Asia. When he spoke, it was with great power and conviction. It was the voice of a man who was not one to be trifled with. "Where is the North Star?" he demanded.

Loki, for his part, barely knew how to do anything *other* than trifle with those around him. "I'm sorry," he asked the being who had spoken to him, "were you talking to *me*?"

The being spoke again. "Where. is. the North Star?"

Loki smiled. "Forgive me, you'll have to excuse my lack of social graces. After all, it's not like I get actual visitors down here..."

The being reached through the bars and grabbed Loki by the rags he was dressed in. "Are you Loki, the one who stole the North Star? The one who almost used it to destroy Earth?"

Loki frowned at the being in confusion. "I'm sorry, you must have me confused with someone else," he replied. "It *is* true that I am Loki, but what is this North Star of which you speak?"

It soon became the being's turn to be confused as he released Loki from his grasp. "You *are* Loki?"

"Yes," Loki replied.

"Yet you do not know of the North Star?"

Loki briefly considered his situation and decided to try and seize upon the opportunity. "Oh, *that* North Star!" he exclaimed, hoping his inflections didn't come across as too fake. "Yes, yes...what would you like to know?"

"We believe the North Star is a god-maker," the being replied. "But you had it and were defeated. How?"

Loki flinched like the being had struck him with his words. "There are...warriors on Earth. Warriors who control beasts that are strong enough to take down an army."

"And was it these warriors who defeated you?"

Loki flinched again, steadfastly refusing to admit who had really beaten him. "No," he insisted, perhaps a little too emphatically. "My foster brother Thor defeated me. Only a god can defeat another god."

"Indeed," agreed the being, apparently taking Loki's words at face value. "But suppose you had an army of gods at your disposal. Could you then defeat those who defeated you last time?"

Loki's smile grew to grin of wicked confidence. "Without question," he replied.

"Then let us go to Earth and retrieve the North Star."

And with those words, Loki and his visitor vanished from Asgard.

* * *

Barton was having trouble believing the sight before him. "You *do* clean up well," he told his temporary partner with a chuckle.

Thor was unfazed. "Under the circumstances, I felt it might be more appropriate to, how do you say it...blend in?"

Barton shook his head as he...considered the physique of the man in front of him. "Yeah, you'll fit right in," he teased.

Thor picked up on the underlying tension behind the casual banter. The god waited until the noise of takeoff died down and the floor stabilized underneath their feet, then placed a hand on Barton's shoulder in an attempt to be reassuring. "She woke up, Hawkeye. The worst is over now. She will recover."

Barton shifted his weight nervously between his feet even as he nodded. He hated feeling so exposed. "Those other women haven't been so lucky," Barton insisted, trying to dodge his feelings by focusing on the mission. "We need to find this guy before he gets the chance to strike again."

"Agreed," said Thor with a grim nod. "So where are we going?"

"Well," Barton began, "before Bishara turned on us, Tasha was able to get one lead out of him..."

* * *

Esposito started his briefing as soon as the group from the conference room arrived. "As I was going through the memories of our guests, one name kept coming up in their conversations: Samal Najma."

Ryan picked up his partner's narrative. "Now, when we started investigating Samal Najma, we found one problem: he doesn't exist."

"It's not an alias?" asked Fallon.

Esposito shook his head. "We were getting nowhere until we looked up what the name *meant*: Samal Najma is arabic for North Star."

Hunt frowned. "That still doesn't ring a bell. Why would that be significant?"

Ryan and Esposito both pulled out small, worn, leather-bound journals. Castle and Beckett recognized the books immediately. Ryan explained, "Lobsang's old journal mentions the North Star a couple of times. According to the legends that were passed down to them, the North Star was a talisman of great power. Some of the legends implied that the North Star could be the source of the Guardians' powers..."

"Which we know isn't the case," Castle insisted.

Ryan nodded in agreement. "Lobsang said the same thing in his journal. He did say, though, that he believed the North Star was a dangerous weapon and he was grateful to never have to have faced off against it."

"So you guys think the Prophet has found this North Star?" asked Fallon.

Esposito nodded.

* * *

"But you already knew that the North Star was an energy weapon, did you not?" asked Thor.

"We did," agreed Barton, "but that wasn't the only important thing Bishara told us about the North Star."

Thor was starting to get confused. "It was not?"

Barton shook his head. "North Star is also the name of a shell company that the Prophet uses to coordinate his entertaining and public appearances."

* * *

Castle shook his head in bewilderment. "Wait a second, we weren't looking for a person, we're looking for a...party planning company?!"

Ryan nodded. "Evidently, the Prophet is a big believer in fate. If you want an audience with the Prophet, you're told to call the company's number and get their schedule for the day you want an audience. You're given up to six different social events around the city. They guarantee that the Prophet will show up at one of the events you're given, but that's all they tell you."

* * *

"So I take it you have a copy of the calendar for this company for today?" asked Thor.

Barton nodded, and rested a hand on the god's shoulder. "Hopefully the fates are with us today."

* * *

"I'm not a big believer in leaving things up to fate," insisted Fallon. "How many events are on the calendar?"

"Four," Esposito replied.

"Let's split up the list, then, and have each couple crash one of the parties. Master Mùshī, would you and your wife go with Castle and Beckett, so Mama Bear has adequate protection?" Ryan nodded in agreement, so Fallon turned to the elder spy in the room. "Agent Hunt, do you think you're ready to go back in the field?"

"Absolutely," Hunt replied with grim determination.

"Then if you would please go with Madame Diva and escort your granddaughter and her boyfriend..."

Hunt's eyes widened as he turned to his ex. "Martha?" he exclaimed. "*You're* going out in the field?"

Martha glared at her old flame. "I am," she replied firmly. "Do you have a problem with that?"

Hunt shifted uncomfortably under the crushing weight of Martha's gaze. It was quickly becoming clear to Hunt that arguing his point was going to be counter-productive to his future prospects for staying healthy. "No, no," he relented quietly, "I don't have a problem with that."

Martha's smile showed exactly how much she enjoyed having the upper hand on her ex. "Smart answer, Richard."

Ryan turned in surprise to the other Richard in the room. _Richard? _he asked Castle through the Guardian's mind-link.

_Yes...Richard_, Castle replied smartly. _That was the name he was using when they were together._

_So it's not...?_ asked Ryan.

_Ask your partner. At this point, he probably knows more of the story than I do._

Ryan chuckled at the thoughts running through his mind, knowing that Esposito would never break what he considered to be his most important rule. _So what should *we* call him?_

_Stick with Jackson Hunt for now,_ said Castle. _At least, until one of my parents tells you otherwise._

_Feels good to say that?_ asked Ryan.

Castle smiled, blushing as he realized that was the first time since he had discovered his father's identity that he been able to refer to his mother and father as a team. _Yeah_, he admitted, _it does._

Fallon coughed to get the attention of the two men before ending the meeting. "Master Mùshī, you'll be able to keep the link going while we're working the separate parties?"

"Not a problem," said Ryan.

"Then once anyone spots the Prophet, alert the rest of the group so Master Sìfāng can get us there. I want to make sure this takedown goes as clean as possible," announced Fallon. "Good luck, everyone."

* * *

Esposito pulled his tuxedo's black tie away from his neck for the fifth time, and Lanie swatted her husband's hand away from his neck...for the fifth time. "Stop it," she insisted. "Remember, we need to look like we belong."

"*You* look like you belong here, Dr. Esposito," Esposito muttered as he looked his wife up and down with loving appreciation.

The smile Lanie gave her husband lifted his spirits like nothing else could have. "Focus, honey," she gently nudged her husband. "We've got a job to do."

Esposito nodded, his tone turning serious in a heartbeat. His focus moved to the thoughts of his fellow Guardians as they were running through his mind. _Okay, so how are we supposed to recognize this guy?_

_He'll walk in with a woman on each arm_, Ryan replied as he brought a drink to his wife at their party in a different hotel, _one blond, one brunette._

_That describes half the men at this club, _added Alexis from the event she and Steve were crashing on the other side of town. _Do we have anything else to go on?_

_I was *getting* to that,_ Ryan insisted. _Anyway...he'll have a woman on each arm and a unique boutonniere on his collar. _A picture of an orange tropical flower flashed through the minds of everyone in the group. _It's called a bird of paradise. If you find a man wearing one of these on his lapel, he's probably our guy._

_Got it, _said Esposito. Thanks. He started to scan the room carefully, looking for anyone sporting the unique flower. Looking down at his wife, Esposito soon noticed that she was doing the same thing. "Any luck?" he asked her quietly.

Lanie shook her head. "You?"

"Not so far," he said. Esposito smiled as he let his thoughts wander from what he was doing to where he was and who he was with. "How about we take this search out to the dance floor?"

Lanie returned her husband's smile as she accepted his hand, allowing herself to be escorted out to the dance floor. While she was sorely tempted to lean into her husband's embrace and lose herself to the feeling of being in his arms, Lanie forced herself to focus on letting her eyes wander without making it too *obvious* that her eyes were wandering around the dance floor.

Esposito, though, did notice her wife's wandering eyes and immediately understood her intentions. _Smart thinking, chica,_ he complimented Lanie through their bond-link, _but why don't you let me lead?_ When Lanie looked up at her husband, frowning in confusion, Esposito leaned down, touching his wife's forehead to his own. "Close your eyes," he whispered with a loving smile, "and open your mind."

Still confused, but trying to trust her husband, Lanie closed her eyes and relaxed fully into her husband's embrace...and fought the urge to gasp when she realized that she was seeing everything that her husband was seeing through his eyes. _Javi_...she asked, amazed, _how?_

_Castle told me about how he's pulled this off with Beckett a couple of times,_ replied Esposito, _and I figured it would be less conspicuous than both of us trying to look around. How much can you see?_

_Everything_, Lanie replied, awestruck, into their bond-link. _It's like I never closed my eyes...and stood on a spinning box..._

Esposito had to resist the urge to chuckle out loud. _Just pipe up if you see anything I've missed, okay?_

_Okay_, agreed Lanie. The couple twirled around the dance floor, Esposito acting at the eyes for both himself and his wife as they carefully scanned the area for any sign of the prophet.

Finally, though...it wasn't Esposito's eyes that showed him the prophet's identity. It was his back. _Hmmm_, Esposito commented into his bond-link with his wife, _that's weird._

_What_? asked Lanie.

_Well_, Esposito tried to explain, _I'm sure you probably noticed that I've been catching stray memories of everyone I've bumped into?_

_Yeah..._

Esposito frowned, having trouble trying to explain the odd sensation. _There's this guy...I can't bump into him. It's like hitting a moving wall._

_Really_? asked Lanie. _Can you try to push me into him?_

_I'll give it a shot,_ replied Esposito. _Get ready for a spin._ He twirled Lanie out on the tight dance floor...

Where she found herself running headlong into the arms of another man. She blushed, melodramatically pulling away to try and seem like just another ditzy socialite. "Oh my goodness," she exclaimed in embarassment, "I am so sorry..."

The damage, though, had already been done. The man looked terrified. Abnormally terrified. "Who...who the hell are you people?!" he exclaimed.

Lanie could only stare at the man...until she saw the tiny, laquered Bird of Paradise flower he was wearing as a tie tac pin. Her thoughts flew through the group mind-link in rapid-fire succession. _It's him. The Prophet. He's read me. He knows._

The team was in the ballroom in the blink of an eye. Alexis backed up immediately, placing her hand against the wall. "Claudere arca archa," she whispered, instantly creating a magical barrier to make sure that the Prophet couldn't escape.

The crowded dance floor, though, seemed to be the greatest obstacle to the Prophet's chances of getting away from the Guardians. He tried to push his way through the crowd, only to grow more and more confused as the random memories of those around him flooded the Prophet's panicked mind. Finally, though, the cacophony of thoughts grew to a deafening roar, and the Prophet dropped to his knees, crying out "MAKE IT STOP!" at the top of his lungs...bringing the party to a crashing halt as he collapsed.

A horde of partygoers croweded around the man...most of them curious onlookers who had never seen somone collapse in front of them before. Lanie tried to fight her way through the crowd, yelling out "I'm a doctor, let me through!" as loudly as she dared. It proved a futile effort, however, as the collective attention of the several hundred people in the room seemed to be focused as one on the single unconscious man.

A team of forceful voices came up from behind Lanie, clearing the way for her with a chorus of "Make way!" "Clear out, people!" "Out of the way, let her through!"

When the path was finally cleared, Lanie found herself staring into the eyes of an old ally. "You guys are here for the guy who just collapsed?" asked Mayor Wheldon. When Lanie nodded, Wheldon's grim expression grew even more fiercely protective. "Then get him out of here. My people will cover for you."

"Thank you, sir," Lanie said quickly before hurrying off to her patient. It soon become obvious, however, that there had been no real reason to rush. The team caught up to Lanie as she was checking the Prophet's pulse...or lack thereof. _He's dead,_ she announced into the group's mind-link.

_How? _asked Fallon.

_Aneurysm?_ asked Esposito. Lanie nodded. Esposito projected an explanation to the group to get everyone up to speed. _I have to make sure that the memories I...acquire...are well organized in my head. If I don't, it gradually builds up the pressure in my head over time._

_If he ever got too far behind in 'organizing',_ Lanie added, it could kill him. _Just like it killed our friend here._

_So his power was just like Javier's_? Steve asked through the mind-link. Lanie nodded again.

_We should get him back to the warehouse,_ Beckett announced to the group. _See what information we can get from the body...if any._

_Agreed_, Castle projected to the group. _Ryan?_

Ryan closed his eyes to focus, then projected a simple message out to everyone who was watching them. _He's *fine*. Let's enjoy the rest of the party..._ As everyone on the floor took Ryan's less-than-voluntary suggestion, Castle and Alexis blinked the group back to the warehouse.

* * *

Above the fray, a gentleman in a tuxedo sipped his champagne as he watched the scene from the balcony outside the restrooms. "Well, well, well," Tony Stark commented to no one in particular. "You certainly know how to throw an interesting party, Mr. Mayor. Now what could Captain America, a dead body, and a disappearing crime novelist *possibly* have in common. I just might have to try and figure this out for myself..."

Stark quickly became so deeply engrossed in the puzzle set before him, in fact, that he *almost* missed the two annoyingly familiar and seriously underdressed men waiting for him at the bottom of the staircase. "Agent Barton?" he asked Hawkeye, "Dare I ask what you and the god of the thunderdome are doing barging into a black-tie reception?"

"Not looking for you, Stark, I assure you," Barton insisted. "We're looking for a man known as the Prophet. We got a tip saying he might be here."

"I see," said Stark. "What does this Prophet man look like? Do you know?" Stark's expression turned more and more grim and determined as Barton described their man. "Sorry to disappoint you fellas," he told the agent, "but your man died a couple of minutes ago. And I think you boys really need to get me up to speed. Now."

* * *

The Guardians and their support 'crew' blinked into Castle's loft and almost collectively let out a weary group sigh. With their evening ending early, Castle invited everyone over for dinner and a couple of rounds of poker. "I can't believe we still don't know who that guy was," Beckett sighed as she collapsed onto a bar stool near the kitchen. "Or that we still don't know what this North Star thing is."

"We'll figure it out, dad," Alexis reassured her father.

"Thanks, pumpkin," Castle said with a smile, kissing the top of his daughter's head. "Now, what do you guys want for dinner? Pizza sound good?"

"Order some for us, too," an unknown voice called out from the library. "I like extra pepperoni, but I have no idea about...what *would* a Norse God want on his pizza? Herring?"

No one in the room took the time to evaluate the man's attempt at humor. They were far too busy reacting to the presence of three strange men in the apartment. "What the hell are you doing in my apartment, Stark?" Castle declared angrily.

"My friends here have given me the distinct impression that you might have had something to do with a close friend of mine getting very badly hurt..." Stark replied.

"Which gives you the right to break into my *apartment*?" Castle asked in disbelief, cutting off the billionaire.

"It gives us the right to do whatever we have to do to get answers out of you, *wizard*," Barton shot back angrily.

A third man joined the conversation, hoping to defuse some of the tension in the room. "He's not the wizard you're looking for, Agent Barton. I can promise you that much."

The eyes of Stark and his companions widened as they recognized the man who had just spoken up. "Cap?!" exclaimed Stark, "What the hell are you doing here?!"

Alexis (and pretty much everyone else save Ryan and Esposito) was sharing Stark's disbelief. "Steve? Do you know these men?"

Steve turned to the woman he considered his first priority. "Remember that group I told you about, Lex? The Avengers?" When Alexis nodded, Steve introduced the three intruders. "Alexis, you're looking at Thor, Agent Clint Barton aka Hawkeye, and Tony Stark, also know as Iron Man. Three of the other members of the Avengers."


	6. Chapter 6

Steve immediately turned his attention to the question that Stark pushed to the front of his mind. "Wait a minute, who's been hurt?"

"Natasha," Barton replied coolly. "A wizard electrocuted her before she knew what was coming."

Steve's face drained of color in reaction to the name. It was clear that he was deeply shocked by the news. "Is she okay?"

"She will be," Barton replied with resolute determination.

_If you can talk me in to get to see her I'll see what I can do, _Lanie projected into the mind-link. Even without knowing exactly who this Natasha was, it was obvious that this was a woman that all four men all cared very deeply for.

Steve's mental response showed the gratitude he couldn't show verbally. _Thank you._

Barton didn't have the luxury of knowing that help was being arranged for his beloved. It showed in his mood. "Okay, you know who we are," he told the group. "Now who the hell are you?"

"We're the descendants of a group called the Guardians of Shangri La," Castle told them. "We're the *good* guys, here."

"If you are as good as you claim to be," Thor demanded to know, "then why did you murder the Prophet..."

Esposito cut Thor's incorrect assumptions off quickly. "We didn't kill him," he informed the god. The tension in both Esposito and Castle was obvious. "The Prophet died because he had a power he didn't know how to control."

"And you know this because..." asked Stark.

Lanie answered the question on her husband's behalf, floating a theory she was almost completely sure was correct. "Because my husband has the same ability that the Prophet had."

All eyes fell on Lanie after that declaration. "And what ability would that be?" asked Stark.

"I read memories," replied Esposito. "Anything you've ever seen, experienced or learned, I can get from shaking your hand."

Stark seemed determined to prove Esposito's announcement wrong. "All right," he declared. "Prove it." He crossed the living room and gave Esposito's hand a firm shake, letting the Guardian control when their hands separated. He then tried to push Esposito with a series of rapid-fire questions. "Who saved my life?"

"Are you talking about Yinsen, the man who put that thing in your chest in Afghanistan," Esposito replied coolly, "or your girlfriend when she refused to throw away the ARC reactor you told her to get rid of?"

"What was Iron Man's first mission?"

"The first suit or the second one?"

"First."

"Escaping your captors in Afghanistan."

"What's the first thing I did in the second suit?"

"Buzzed the Santa Monica Pier."

"Who is Natasha Romanoff?"

"SHIELD agent. *Crazy* sexy. You first met her when she got an undercover assignment babysitting you after you promoted Pepper to CEO." Esposito smiled and let out a low whistle as a series of images flashed through his mind..."Wow, Stark...does *Pepper* know you still fantasize about Agent Romanoff like that?"

Stark blushed, sufficiently convinced of Esposito's ability even as he hoped Barton wouldn't kill him for the fantasy comments. "All right, I believe you," he relented, slowly backing away from the Guardians.

"How do you know that the Prophet read memories?" asked Barton.

Lanie answered Barton's question. "Couple of things: first, the Prophet was the only person in the room that my husband couldn't get near. Said it was like trying to push against an invisible moving wall."

"Like trying to push the same poles of two magnets together?" asked Stark.

Esposito nodded, which Lanie took as a signal to continue. "The second thing is exactly *how* the Prophet died. Massive cerebral hemorrhage."

"And you know this because...?" asked Stark.

"I'm a doctor," replied Lanie.

"So none of you are not allied with the wizard who attacked our friend?" Thor asked Castle.

Castle shook his head. "We've been pursuing him...same as the three of you, apparently."

Thor was quickly starting to understand that he and his allies were working under a set of incorrect and incomplete assumptions. Diplomacy was desperately needed to defuse the situation, and between Stark, Barton and himself...Thor turned his attentions to the man he believed to be the leader of the group in front of him. "Mister...?"

"Castle," the wizard replied.

"Castle," Thor repeated, "how appropriate. Mister Castle, first, I would like to apologize for how my colleagues and I invaded the sanctity of your home..."

"Really?" Esposito spat back, incredulous to the bigger man's apology. "And we should believe you because..."

A wave of calming emotion washed over everyone in the room, stopping the escalating tension in its tracks. "Because Thor is the ruler of his people," announced Ryan, "and he's *hoping* that an act of diplomacy will help us to start things over on the right footing. And I, for one, happen to agree with him." When Thor raised a surprised eyebrow, curious as to how Ryan could make such a definitive announcement, the Mùshī responsed with a simple, matter-of-fact pronouncement. "I read minds and emotions, sire. You're not as different from humans as you might think."

"And can you control those emotions as well?" Thor asked, duly impressed.

"When necessary," Ryan replied with a curt nod. He took stock of the thoughts and emotions of the people around him, and aside from some resentment on the part of his friends, it appeared that the fear and angry tension were finally starting to subside. "Now," he announced to the group, "the one thing I am sure of is that we're all on the same side here...even if all of you aren't exactly convinced of that yet. So *both* sides, start talking. And let's see if we can all just...learn to get along or something..."

* * *

Thirty minutes later, the group took a break so Castle could conjure up the promised pizzas. Tony Stark fingered the label on his longneck bottle of "Ye Olde Castle's Brew", according to the custom label. The billionaire shook his head and chuckled in amazement. Twelve hours prior to that moment, if anyone had told him he would be in a wizard's apartment drinking a beer that simply appeared out of thin air? He would have called them crazy.

Especially if they had told him that the wizard would be, of all people, Richard Castle.

Stark turned to the one man who, for all of his 'man out of time' quirks, was the only man that the billionaire considered to be completely honorable. "Okay, now let me see if I've got this straight," he told Steve. "Richard Castle, the man who wrote such cheesy supernatural crap as 'At Dusk We Die'...is a wizard?"

"Yep," Steve replied.

"And two of his buddies can read minds to various degrees, one's a doctor with psychic healing ability and Castle's fiancée has senses better than you, Hawk and Agent Romanoff combined. Plus she and the mind-readers are at your level in strength, speed and agility. That about cover it?" Steve nodded again.

"And the guys we're chasing, the ones who put Agent Romanoff in the hospital...they're not just wizards, they're copies of these guys?"

Steve nodded a third time. "That a problem, Stark?"

"No, no..." Stark shrugged, trying to deflect the edge of defensiveness he heard in Steve's voice. "I'm just trying to figure out where you fit in in this crazy little group." Stark finished his beer as he watched the dynamic between the members of the Guardians and their human 'support team'. It was then that he noticed it, out of the corner of his eye...Steve was smiling. Specifically, he was smiling *at* one of the members of that human support team. "You like her, don't you?"

Steve's defenses were up instantly. "Who?"

"The redhead. Castle's daughter. You like her, don't you?"

"What?" Steve exclaimed quietly, blushing. "No..."

That was all Stark needed to hear. "You *do* like her," he insisted with a smile. "You realize she's young enough to be your granddaughter..."

"And you're old enough to be my son," Steve countered quickly. "So what?"

"No reason," Stark backtracked quickly, realizing, to his surprise, that he had pushed too far. _He doesn't just *like* this girl..._thought Stark. "Have you thought about asking her out?" When Steve's only response was to take another slug from his beer bottle, it told Stark all he needed to know. "You *have* asked her out, haven't you?" Steve's blush said more to Stark than any answer could have. "How long have you two been seeing each other?"

"A few months," Steve replied quietly, not wanting to give out any more information than he had to.

That admission alone, though, was more than enough to surprise Stark. "Really?"

Steve nodded. "Surprised?"

"A little," Stark admitted. "The idea of you having a life...it snuck up on me, I guess..."

Stark's last comment sparked something in Steve's mind. "Snuck up on me..." he repeated. Inspired, Steve crossed to the kitchen where the Guardians were congreagating. "Master Mùshī, Master Xiānzhī," Steve spoke quickly, switching over to the titles that the Network used for the Guardians in 'public' situations. "You know how you guys can share your memories sometimes?"

Ryan and Esposito looked to each other, trying to figure out where Steve was going with this. "Yeah...?"

"Can you show us Stark's memories of the Mayor's reception?" asked Steve. "He saw everything from the balcony, maybe he saw something we missed."

Ryan and Esposito perked up at the idea. Esposito looked to Stark, not wanting to share the man's memories without his permission. "May I?" he asked.

Stark nodded, his curiosity overriding any other thoughts. "Anything to help," he replied. "As long as you just stick to *only* the memories from the party." Stark soon realized, though, that he couldn't resist the obvious joke. "I mean, it's not like you could all watch me having sex with my girlfriend..." His voice trailed off when Stark realized that if the Guardians could do what they said they could do, then it was not out of their capabilities to do *exactly* that. "Can you?"

"We'll stick to the reception," Esposito insisted with a chuckle, "and thank you." Everyone but Thor, Hawkeye and Stark seemed to close their eyes in near-unison as the billionaire's memories played through the collective mind-link.

It was Beckett who noticed it first. "Hey guys," she announced to the group. "Do you see the old Asian guy standing at the edge of the group near the prophet's body?"

Castle picked out who his fiancée was talking about immediately. "I see him. What about him?"

Lanie soon figured out who they were talking about. "I think I remember that guy..."

Esposito grabbed his wife's hand, cross-referencing the memories to see if they could get a better image to work from. "You saw him on the dance floor, chica," he agreed, sending the image through the mind-link.

Having the clearer image to work from only confirmed Beckett's suspicions. "Try to picture the guy about thirty years younger," she told her team, "and a *lot* less burned. Does he look familiar to anyone else but me?"

Castle's eyes flew open as his active imagination picked up on where Beckett was going immediately. Unfortunately, it did nothing to alleviate the sense of dread forming in the pit of his stomach when he *did* recognize the man. "Oh God," Castle exclaimed, "Lóng zhǔ..."

That may have qualified as the last name Fallon wanted to hear any of them mention. "The Dragon Master?! That's him?!"

Ryan nodded, confirming everyone's worst suspicions. "Yeah, I can see it, too."

"But didn't you guys kill him?" asked Alexis.

"We *thought* we had killed him," said Esposito.

"His body *imploded*, after all," agreed Ryan.

Castle said what he was sure they were all thinking. "We talked about it back then, remember? I have no power over life and death, so I couldn't have killed him. We just thought that it was some sort of supernatural cremation, but what if it wasn't? What if he was just...transported out of our reality to someplace else?"

Steve didn't talk at all during the Guardians' discussion. His face, though, mirrored the group's concern...even though it seemed like he was still lost in the projected memories. "Steve?" Alexis asked her boyfriend, trying to use a hand on his arm to get his attention, "What is it?"

Steve never opened his eyes. "Master Mùshī," he asked Ryan, "can you project the Yīzhì's memory of the Dragon Master to Stark and the others?" Ryan nodded...and the three targeted men staggered back, gasping as the vivid clarity of someone else's memory took them all by surprise. Steve, though, didn't give his former allies the opportunity to comment on the experience. "Thor," he asked, "do you recognize the gentleman to the *right* of the old Chinese man?"

Thor's face fell into a mask of grim determination as the eyes of all three men flew open in frustration. "I knew we should have killed that little worm when we had the chance," grumbled Hawkeye.

The open eyes and full attention of everyone in the room were completely focused on the three men. "What worm?" asked Lanie.

"My adopted brother," Thor replied with a weary sigh.

"I thought he was going to face 'Asgardian justice'?" asked Barton.

Thor hung his head. "He did," he replied. "We gave him life in prison..."

"Well we can discuss Asgardian prisons and their lack of security later," Steve insisted, trying to stop the argument before it began. "The important thing here is that since we didn't find the North Star on the Prophet's body, then it's probably safe to assume that either Loki or this Dragon Master now have it."

"How can you be sure of that?" asked Barton. "Isn't it possible that he just stuck it in a drawer somewhere before going to the reception?"

Barton shook his head. "Tasha's intel said that he kept it on him at all times, including when he slept."

"It could easily have been lifted in the time between when he died and when I got to the body," Lanie agreed.

"Which puts us back at square one," Fallon concluded with a frustrated sigh. "Unless anyone's got any new ideas?"

"I might have an idea," Steve suggested. "I think I know of someone who might be able to help us." His gaze never left Stark's eyes as he added, "the problem is, I have no idea how to get in touch with him."

Stark didn't need to read minds to recognize the man to whom Steve was referring. "I don't know how to reach him either," he told Steve. "We lost touch about a month after the Chitauri attack."

Steve reacted to the news with a disappointed sigh. "That means there's only one person we can go to who would know where he is," he told the group. "The one man I was hoping none of you would ever have to meet."

Ryan picked up on the name as it floated through Steve's mind. "Nick Fury? We need to take this to SHIELD?"

Steve nodded.

* * *

"I'm going with you."

Steve sighed for what felt like the thousandth time. Idly, he picked up one of Alexis' old teddy bears, trying to come up with another way to re-phrase the same argument. "Alexis, *please*..."

"You need me there, Steve!" Alexis insisted. "The Dragon Master knows about my dad and the rest of the Guardians, so if he's working with Loki, and Loki knows about you guys..."

"Then the only secret weapons we have are you, Stephanie, Katya and Fallon," said Steve. "I know! I've *kept* you guys secret for a reason..."

"To protect us from Loki..."

"To protect you from SHIELD!" Steve exclaimed in a harsh whisper. He took a deep breath, forcing himself to push back his worry and anger as he explained his reasoning. "Lex, I only told Stark and the others about your dad and the Guardians because I *had* to. Even now I'm terrified of what SHIELD is going to want from them after all this is over."

Alexis studied her boyfriend carefully, surprised at how critical he was of the men who had, at one point, helped him save the world. "So you don't trust them?"

Steve shook his head. "SHIELD? Their whole organization is based on uncovering secrets and using that information to build their *own* power base. No, I can't trust them. Not with..." He pulled Alexis' hands into his own as he fought down the fast-growing lump in his throat. "Not with someone as important to me as you are."

Alexis smiled, thrilled as she always was by Steve's expression of his affection for her. "You're just as important to me, Steve. You know that, right?"

Steve chuckled and smiled, brushing Alexis' long red hair away from her face and tucking it behind her ear. "So you keep telling me," he teased.

"So you understand why I want to be able to be there to protect *you*," Alexis insisted.

"I do," Steve agreed with a nod. He pulled Alexis into an embrace that, he hoped, could be taken as a gesture of apology. "Lex, please, for me...stay here. Help Fallon and Katya with the rest of the Network business. This time, let *me* protect *you*. Please."

Alexis sighed, knowing it was going to be impossible for her to win this argument. "All right," she relented. She quickly smiled, though, as she realized the opportunity that had just presented itself. "Will you at least let me try out an experiment I've been working on?"

Steve glared warily at Alexis, slightly nervous about the idea of letting a wizard experiment on him...even a wizard he loved as much as Alexis. "Exactly what kind of 'experiment' do you have in mind, Lex?"

The smile Alexis beamed back in reply did *nothing* to help Steve's nerves.

* * *

Castle had never been so grateful for a telepathic mind-link in his life. Outwardly, he was able to keep himself calm, cool and collected. Compose himself and give SHIELD the desired impression that he was *the* all-powerful master wizard, fully in control of his mind and emotions.

The friends in Castle's mind-link, though...they were getting their head filled with thoughts of *exactly* how Castle was feeling as they sped toward SHIELD's mobile base of operations. _SHIELD's base of operations is on an aircraft carrier? This is so cool!_

Beckett had to resist the urge to chuckle at the juxtaposition between Castle's cool exterior and the nine-year-old on a sugar rush that she was hearing in her head. _It's still a super-secret government agency. Steve has warned us a hundred times that these people can't be trusted, Castle. Don't forget that._

_I know, I know, _Castle agreed, trying to wave off the warning. _Hey, at the very least it beats being transported here with a nasty, smelly, sweaty bag over my head..._

_When did that happen? _asked Esposito.

Ryan was equally curious. _Yeah, when did that happen?_

Beckett winced involuntarily, trying to beat back the old and still-uncomfortable memories. _You remember that Thomas Gage case?_

Esposito recognized the reference immediately. _Oh you mean that one where you and Castle were on 'special assignment' and kept saying that everything you were doing was 'need to know'..._ Esposito had to force himself to keep his face calm and collected. _What *were* you guys doing?_

_Working for the CIA, _Beckett admitted.

Ryan's eyes widened. _Wow...I mean, Javi and I had our suspicions at the time, but you really *were* working for the CIA? Wow..._

Beckett allowed herself one chuckle, then all conversation stopped as the jet made its final approach to the aircraft carrier. Castle took a deep breath, letting it out slowly to make sure his composure was firmly in place as the ramp lowered. Steve pulled the Guardians in close to give them last-minute instructions without divulging too much to the SHIELD agents around them. "Guys, for now, let me do the talking," he told them. "I'm sure you guys were probably talking over a mind-link on the way here?" When Ryan nodded, Steve continued, "for now, we should probably keep it that way. The less any of you say in SHIELD's territory, believe me, the better off we'll be."

"Got it," said Castle. Four other heads nodded in agreement.

_Should we do a perception filter? _Ryan suggested through the mind-link.

_You'll probably be scanned by facial recognition software, _Steve replied into the mind-link, _will the filter work for that? _Ryan shook his head.

_Stark and company have already seen us as well, _Castle chimed in. _At this point it will probably do more to hurt us than to help us. _Ryan nodded in agreement.

Thor, Stark and Barton met the plane as the ramp opened, along with an intimidating-looking tall, bald black man with a patch over one eye. The black man immediately went to Steve and offered his hand in greeting. "Cap," he said, "I gotta admit I was surprised to hear that Agent Barton had run into both you and Mr. Stark over the course of his investigation."

Steve shook the other man's offered hand. "Director Fury," he greeted the SHIELD leader, "I must admit, I was pretty surprised to run into them as well. Small world, I guess."

"Yeah," Fury repeated off-handedly, "small world." He took a minute to push his habitually suspicious thoughts away from the front of his mind before continuing. "So who are your friends, Cap?"

"They're...experts on wizards, Director," Steve replied, trying to give away as little information as possible until it was absolutely necessary. "Once Thor and Agent Barton brought us up to speed they offered to help with the investigation."

The suspicious thoughts re-entered Fury's mind with a vengeance, but he carefully schooled his face so that the emotions didn't show. "Uh huh," was all he said in response. "So what do you need from me, Cap? Agent Barton said you needed to talk to me specifically."

Steve shifted his weight on the balls of his feet, hesitating before he spoke. "Director...I was hoping that you might be able to track down Doctor Banner for me? I think we're going to need his help on this one."

"I think I can manage that," Fury replied. "But why do you need him?"

"The North Star has a unique energy signature. I believe we can use Doctor Banner's experience with working to detect the Tesseract to help us find it."

Fury immediately saw the logic in Steve's theory. _There's just one catch..._ "Captain Rodgers, we were able to track the Tesseract because we knew its energy signature *exactly*. Do you have a sample of the North Star's energy signature, or are you just hoping Dr. Banner's going to be able to figure it out as he goes along?"

Steve was exuding so much confidence he was almost smiling. "Director Fury, I can promise you that we have all the information we need to help Doctor Banner find the North Star."

Fury trusted Steve enough to take him at his word. "All right, then. It'll probably take us a day or so to get to him..."

Castle's eyes widened at the length of the timeframe. "A *day*? Where is he?"

Stark suspected their destination as soon as Fury announced how long it would take to get there. "He went back to India, didn't he?"

Fury nodded. "Leper colony about 30 miles outside of Delhi."

"Why doesn't that surprise me," Stark muttered.

Beckett carefully studied the face of her fiancé. She didn't like what she found there. _Castle..._she warned through the mind-link.

Castle was not going to apologize for what he was thinking. _Beckett, you know the kind of damage Lóng zhǔ can do in twelve hours. So to take a day before we can even start to *look* for him? I can get him here in under two minutes._

_But not without revealing to SHIELD that you are, in fact, a *wizard*. Not just an expert on them. Are you sure you want to accept the consequences of that?_

_Fury's probably going to find out anyway! And what about the damage that Lóng zhǔ can do in the same amount of time if we wait?_

Beckett sighed, knowing that Castle was right. _What do the rest of you think? _she asked, opening the question up to the rest of the group.

_I hate to say it, _Ryan projected through the mind-link, _but I think Castle's right. When Lóng zhǔ had twelve hours to work with we were dealing with the zombie apocalypse. I don't even want to think of what he can do with two days. The sooner we get Banner here, the better._

_Agreed, _Lanie and Esposito chimed in in unison.

_Is this man really that dangerous? _asked Steve.

_He's not just any man, _Ryan replied. _He's a wizard. Probably the most dangerous one we've ever faced. _Ryan flashed a memory through the mind-link of the battle outside of Macy's...causing the other Guardians to shudder as their own memories of that horrific day flashed through their minds.

It was more than enough to convince Steve of the urgency of the situation. _Take Stark with you, _Steve told Castle. _They're friends. He can help you talk Banner into coming back with you. _He then spoke directly to Director Fury. "Can you show us on a map *exactly* where you believe Doctor Banner to be, Director?"

Fury nodded. "Sure, but why?"

Castle took over at that point. "Stark!" he called out to the billionaire.

It was the first word any of the Guardians had spoken in several minutes, and it startled Stark, causing him to jump. "What?"

"We're going to take a...shortcut to find Dr. Banner," Castle replied. "I've been told you might be helpful in talking him into helping us?"

"I...might," Stark replied.

It wasn't hard for the Guardians to notice Stark's hesitation. "Steve said you two were friends," said Castle.

"We are," Stark agreed. "It's just that..." His voice trailed off as he thought about Bruce and his...issues. "Let's just say Doctor Banner is not a man that you want to get angry."

Castle didn't miss a beat. "Master Mùshī?"

"You got it," Ryan replied, understanding exactly what Castle was looking for.

Steve noticed one last moment of hesitation on the wizard's face. _I'll take care explaining things to Fury, _he told the wizard. _Go._

And with that, the three men disappeared in the blink of an eye.

#

The instant change between the brisk seafront breeze of the airline carrier and the sticky, sweaty of Mumbai was disconcerting...especially to Stark, who had been the one least expecting the change. He shook his head, trying to shake the disorientation out of his system, then looked to Castle in amazement. "Where are we?"

"About a half a mile outside of the camp Fury told us about," Castle replied. "I took a chance that this area would be pretty deserted."

Stark looked around at the barren desert landscape that surrounded them. "Guess you guessed right," he shrugged. Their unusual method of transportation was finally starting to sink in. "I can see why you called this a shortcut..." Stark said in amazement.

Castle let out a small chuckle. "Come on," he said to the other two men. "We still don't have a whole lot of time to waste."

The men spent the short walk in relative silence, moving briskly despite the heat. When they got to the edge of the camp, Castle turned to Stark for direction. "Okay, any ideas as to where Banner might be?"

Stark scanned the area, trying to think like his friend. It wasn't hard to pick out which hut was the likely one to be Banner's. One hut stood out among the lean-tos dotting the area: a clean, well-engineered small home which seemed to be a congregating area for the community's population even though it was one of the residences on the furthest most edge of the camp. Stark pointed it out to the other two men. "That one. That'll be Banner's."

The three men waded through the masses of men and women surrounding the house to find the one-room hut split neatly down the middle: kitchen and small bedroom on one side, and a makeshift medical clinic on the other. They found their man in that makeshift clinic, waiting on an old woman who had lost a foot and several fingers to her disease. Banner noticed his visitors immediately. "Can I help you gentlemen?" he asked, without looking up.

Stark couldn't resist the opportunity. "So this is your secret, huh? Sit in a sauna every day to keep yourself as relaxed as possible?'

Banner smiled and chuckled. He helped the old woman to a standing position, handed her some crutches and sent her away with a few words in Hindi. He then turned and embraced his friend. "Stark! What brings you out to my little corner of the middle of nowhere?"

Stark's face fell before Banner was able to finish his question. "We need your help, Bruce."

Banner's face soon matched Stark's. "You have that end-of-the-world sound in your voice. I don't like that."

Stark sighed, knowing Banner was going to like even less what he had to say next. "Loki's back, Bruce. And we think he may have access to a weapon that's more dangerous than the Tesseract."

Banner started cursing a blue streak, the frustration evident in his demeanor. Having already been warned about Banner and his problems with anger, Ryan poured peace into the room, trying to make sure that cooler heads prevailed. The scientist noticed the difference in the room immediately. He went to the doorway of his house and yelled out something in Hindi that caused the crowd to slowly disperse. Banner then turned back to the three other men in his house. "Okay, who the hell are you people?" he demanded to know. "Are you SHIELD?"

"*No*," Castle replied emphatically.

"Then what? I've only met one other person who could change people's emotions like that and he was a elder sādhu who could only do that for one other person in front of him..." Banner gasped, realization hitting him like a ton of bricks. "Rakhavālōṁ..."

Castle frowned in confusion at the unfamiliar term. "I'm sorry...?"

"Emotional control. There's only one other place where I've ever heard of it. It's an old Hindu legend about the group called the Rakhavālōṁ. The word loosely translates into Guardians..." Castle and Ryan shared a look of recognition at the translation, which Banner noticed before he continued. "One of the members of the Guardians, according to the legend, was the Yōd'dhā sādhu. He was supposedly a valiant warrior who was a diplomat first and foremost. The legend said that he could change the entire course of a negotiation between the bitterest of rivals by just walking in the room. So let me ask you a question: which one of you is the Yōd'dhā sādhu?"

Ryan raised his hand. "That would be me, Doctor Banner."

Banner's eyes widened in surprise, not expecting to have gotten the answer he received. "So the legend is *true*?" He wandered over to the window and pulled back the makeshift curtain. "Just wanted to make sure no one around here heard that. If they find out the Ārōgyasādhaka really exists it could start a riot..." Satisfied that no one would be overhearing their conversation, Banner focused his attention entirely on Ryan. "How much did Stark tell you about me?"

"Not much, to be honest," Ryan replied. "All he said was that it's not a good idea for you to get angry."

Banner shook his head, chuckling bitterly. "Not a good idea for me to get angry..." He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, forcing himself to set aside the years of frustration and futility. "Have you...read my mind since you arrived?"

Ryan shook his head. "I didn't see any reason to. I've been focusing more on your emotional state..."

"I'd like you to," Banner insisted, cutting Ryan off. "Read my thoughts, that is. I have a...situation going on that I'm hoping you might be able to help me with."

"Situation?" asked Ryan.

"It's...a little hard to explain."

Ryan nodded. He reached out with his mind, opening a connection between his mind and Banner's, then widening the connection so he could learn as much as possible...

* * *

He woke up, alone, in a white space. This space only had one other thing in it: a tower. A tower made of stone that reached up as high as Ryan could see. Ryan approached the tower slowly, wondering how and why this could be the prevailing image in Banner's mind...

Until he heard the banging. Loud, powerful banging that sounded like it was coming from three floors above him. A roar erupted from within the confines of the tower that chilled Ryan to his core. Wave after wave of rage came at him from the tower, as if the walls of the tower itself were practically vibrating with it. _What could he be hiding behind these walls? _thought Ryan.

Ryan's own thoughts became completely focused on facing whatever it was that Banner was so determined to keep hidden. He moved as close to the tower as he dared and jumped, with the sole goal of getting past the walls in Banner's mind...

The sight that waited for Ryan on the other side of that wall was terrifying. A huge green monster, easily five stories tall, was practically on top of him. It felt like he was swimming in the highest extremes of emotion: rage, terror, obsession, passion. And the one in control of this domain...the one who wanted so desperately to be in control of Banner's mind...was this...hulk...

* * *

Ryan woke with a start. The first image he saw was Bruce Banner snapping back to consciousness at the same time he did. Seeing Banner's human face reminded Ryan of the face of the beast, and his eyes widened as he made the connection. "I can see why you would consider your situation hard to explain," said Ryan.

"What happened?" asked Castle. "What did you see?"

"I was in Doctor Banner's mind," Ryan replied, still trying to catch his breath. He turned to Banner. "You have some pretty impressive mental defenses there, doc."

"They're necessary..." insisted Banner.

Ryan stopped Banner's explanations with a raised hand. "You'll get no argument from me on that point," he agreed. "What would happen if those defenses came down?"

Banner blushed. "The monster comes out. He...I...can be capable of widespread destruction."

Ryan's eyes widened as he recalled an oddly worded news report that stuck out like a sore thumb. "Harlem? That was you?"

Banner had trouble looking Ryan in the eye. "Not one of my finer moments," he admitted.

"So that...thing...in your head. That's *real*?" Ryan asked, shocked.

Banner nodded. His eyes, his face...his entire demeanor radiated desperation. "I've looked all over the world," he told Ryan, "I've searched everywhere, tried every physical, mental and spiritual practice I came across. I want nothing more than to get rid of him, once and for all. Can you help me?"

The memory of tearing apart the soul of an evil witch rose to the forefront of Ryan's mind. He forced his lingering emotions about the encounter to the back of his mind so he could focus on the bigger problem at hand. "Will you help us find the North Star?"

Banner quickly considered Ryan's counteroffer. "I help you, you help me. Is that it?"

Ryan nodded. "I believe I can help you, but that help isn't going to make any difference to anyone if we don't get the North Star back from Loki. Will you help us?"

Banner's response to Ryan's request was definitive and immediate. He stood up and offered a hand for Ryan to shake. "Deal. Where are we going to work? I'm assuming you don't want us to set up shop here in the leper colony..."

"Leave that to me," said Castle.

The four men disappeared a moment later.


	7. Chapter 7

"You're working with a wizard." Nick Fury was furious, and he was having no problems showing it. "You're working with a goddamn *wizard*." He got in Steve's face, desperate to drive home exactly how he was feeling about this particular bit of news. "Cap, you have no idea what these people are capable of..."

"No," Steve countered, quickly cutting Fury off. "No offense, sir, but it's the other way around. *You* have no idea what these people are capable of."

Fury expected many things out of the old war hero, but the one thing he was not expecting was to hear him defending wizards. "Really?" he asked Steve, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Then why don't you *enlighten* me, Cap. Are you aware of what a wizard did to Agent Romanoff?"

"I am," replied Steve. "But not all wizards are evil."

"Not all wizards are evil," Fury grumbled. "Only I haven't met one yet who wasn't..."

"You just did," Steve insisted, cutting off the other man's train of thought.

Fury studied the face of the man in front of him, surprised by the rock-solid conviction he found in Steve's expression. "How long have you known this particular wizard, Cap?"

"Almost as long as I've known you," Steve replied. "And I trust *him* much more."

Steve's comments stung, and Fury understood the implications behind them. He tapped his wrist, initiating communication with his top lieutenant. "Agent Hill?"

"Yeah, boss?" replied the woman on the other end of the line.

"Have you run facial recognition on Captain Rodgers' friends like I asked?" The hesitation on the other end of the line concerned Fury immediately. "What is it, Hill?"

"Uh, sir...I was able to get information on everyone who came on the transport with Captain Rodgers..."

Fury was *really* starting to hate the level of hesitation he was hearing in Hill's voice. "And?"

"Their records are top-level classified, sir. By the Director of Homeland Security."

Fury started cursing a blue streak. "I'm heading up to the conference room," he told Hill. "Get McPherson on the phone *now*. I always knew that bitch was keeping secrets from me. And now I am gonna go get myself some answers."

"Yes, sir," was all Agent Hill could reply.

#

Fury stormed into the conference room to find the face of a smiling, relaxed older woman staring back at him. "How can I help you today, Dir..." The voice of the Homeland Security director trailed off as Lanie, Esposito and Beckett filed in behind Fury. "Ah," she exclaimed, the smile dropping from her face. "I see you all have met."

"Yes, we've met," Fury spat out angrily. "What I'd like to know, *Director* McPherson, is why we haven't met before now. You're familiar with the case SHIELD has been working on?"

"The North Star device," McPherson replied as she nodded. "Yes, I have been brought up to speed on the case..."

"Then if you knew we were trying to track a device that turned people into *wizards*," Fury countered, "why the *hell* didn't you tell me that you had a *wizard* on staff?"

Diane noticed immediately that the wizard in question wasn't in the room, and made sure to carefully word her response accordingly. "I saw the mess your people made of New York City after the alien invasion," she countered. "And the even *bigger* mess that would have been made of New York City if your 'council' had anything to say about it. The last thing I wanted to do is put a weapon as powerful as a *wizard* into their hands."

Fury's eyes widened as an revelation hit him square in the face. "That's why you've been petitioning for a seat on the council, isn't it? You were trying to protect him from us?"

Diane nodded. "If our positions had been reversed, might you have done the same thing with the Avengers?"

Fury thought about how the Council handled the situation with the Chitauri. What the Council wanted to do with the Tesseract, even after the Chitauri attack. And what they would want to do with both the wizard and the North Star once they learned about them...*if* they learned about them. It was then, and only then, that Fury smiled. "Point taken, ma'am," said Fury.

Dinae forced herself to keep from smiling back in return. Far too much was on the line. "So you understand exactly *why* I kept the wizard a secret?"

"Yes, ma'am," replied Fury.

"And why I will want him to continue to work through *my* office after all this is over?"

"Yes, ma'am," replied Fury.

"So do we have a problem, Director Fury?" asked Diane.

Fury shook his head. "No, ma'am...as long as you answer two questions for me."

"What would you like to know?"

"First...now that I know about your wizard, are you going to continue to lobby for a seat on the council?"

Diane nodded. "Absolutely. The SHIELD council is dangerous. They've become powerful and arrogant, with no one to challenge their authority. I intent to change that."

Fury's smile grew even wider...just before it was wiped from his face completely. "I have one other question," he insisted.

"What is it?" asked Diane.

Fury turned and pointed to where Lanie, Esposito and Beckett were standing behind him. "Who the hell are they?!"

#

The four men re-appeared on the deck of the SHIELD aircraft carrier. Banner spun around with wide-eyed, child-like enthusiasm, too enamored by how he got to where they were to be annoyed by their location. He turned to Ryan. "Teleportation?" Ryan nodded. "The legends never said anything about you being able to do *that*..."

Ryan shook his head and pointed to his fellow Guardian. "Not me. Him."

Banner turned his attention to Castle and studied the man carefully, racking his brain to remember every aspect of the legend that he only heard a couple of times. His eyes widened as the right part of the story clicked into place. "The Cāra havā'ōṁ...you're the wizard of the legend?" Castle nodded, tilting his head in a slight bow, which only sent Banner's head shaking in amazement all over again.

Castle opened his mouth to speak, then closed it when Beckett's mind-voice echoed through their bond-link. _Castle, we need you guys up here *now*. Fury's talking to Director McPherson. You're not the only one who's about to be outed._

The four men disappeared before Beckett could say anything else.

#

Diane kept her expression carefully controlled. "Who are who, Director?"

"Don't play that game with me, Director," Fury countered. "You classified all their files, not just Castle's. Now while the wizard is a big part of the story, he's not the whole story, and we both know it. So if you want to gain my complete trust, Director McPherson, then you need to give me a reason to trust you completely. I want the *full* story, and I want it now."

"It's not my story to tell, Director Fury," Diane replied. "It's theirs. It's up to them if they want to tell it to you. I support *them*, not the other way around."

Fury raised an eyebrow at Diane's last comments, surprised at how differently she treated the Guardians in comparison to how he handled things with the Avengers. "In that case, Director," he told the woman on the other side of the video screen, "I'll be in touch."

As the call ended, Fury turned all of his attention to the now fully assembled group in front of him. As much as he was sorely tempted to yell and scream at the group in front of him, he also realized how counter-productive that would be to his cause. So, carefully keeping his expression neutral, Fury pleaded his case as calmly as he dared. "I don't know what you've heard about me," he told the Guardians, "but judging what I've heard from my associates, I'm assuming it's not good." When five stoic faces stared back at him, that gave Fury all the information he needed to know. "Thought so. However...I'm also hoping that my people have also told you that I have a vested interest in making sure this North Star isn't used to hurt anybody else..."

"Agent Romanoff," said Lanie.

Fury nodded. "Someone goes after one of my people, they go after me. Now, I want to throw the full weight of SHIELD behind this mission and give you guys everything you need to get this guy. But in order to do that, I need to be able to *trust* you. And I can't do that if I don't know who you are."

Banner watched the exchange between Fury and the Guardians with barely concealed amusement. "You mean Fury doesn't know about you guys yet? And you still found me?" When Ryan shook his head, Banner broke into a wide grin. "I knew there was a reason I liked you..."

_How much does Banner know? _Esposito asked Ryan through the mind-link.

_A lot more than Fury, _replied Ryan. _Apparently there's an equivalent to the Guardian legend in the Indian culture. Javi...Banner needs our help._

_With the North Star?_

_No. He needs *our* help._

Esposito dug into his partner's mind, pulling out the memories of Ryan's experiences in Banner's mind. It took every bit of control Esposito had to *not* react to the images flying through his mind. _Jesus..._

_Yeah, _agreed Ryan as a chill ran down his spine. _He's gone around the world to try to get rid of that...thing. I think I can help him, but I can't do it alone._

_Whatever you need me to do, _agreed Esposito.

_Same here, _chimed in Lanie.

Castle moved to get the Guardians back on the immediate topic. _What about Fury? _he asked the group. _Should we trust *him*?_

_He's sincere, _Ryan told the group, _this is personal for him._

_It's going to be even more personal when he finds out that Loki's involved, _agreed Steve. _Loki murdered a close friend of Fury's._

_So should we tell him? _asked Beckett.

Reluctantly, Steve agreed. _He's got intelligence and technology at his disposal that will help us get these guys faster. I still don't totally trust him, but time is of the essence here._

_So we tell him, but nothing beyond the five of us, agreed? _asked Castle.

Five heads nodded in agreement. It was a move which confused Fury to no end. "Okay..." he asked the group, "what's going on?"

Beckett spoke for the group, the first to reply directly to one of Fury's questions. "We were just discussing whether or not we could trust you."

"But you didn't say *anything*," said Fury.

"Yes, exactly," Castle agreed.

"So you're telepathic," said Fury, musing over that new piece of information...

Until Ryan shook his head. "He's not. I am."

Fury raised an eyebrow, surprised by that new addition to his limited mental 'file' about the group in front of him. "Do each of you have unique abilities?" he asked the Guardians.

Five heads nodded. "We're the descendants of an ancient order called the Guardians of Shangri La," Castle told Fury.

Fury tapped a few 'buttons' on the conference table's virtual keyboard. "Okay, which one of you is the Warrior Prophet and which one of you is the Hunter?"

The specificity of Fury's question surprised the Guardians. "I thought you didn't know who we were?" asked Castle.

"I didn't," replied Fury. "But the legend of the Guardians *is* in our system. And from what little I've seen of your abilities, I figured Mr. Castle here is the wizard, former Detective Ryan is the Warrior Priest, and it wasn't a stretch to assume that Doctor Parrish over there is the Healer?" When Lanie nodded, Fury continued, "so if all of you line up with the characters in the legend, then one of you is the Warrior Prophet and one of you is the Hunter. Which is which?"

Beckett turned to Steve. "You're right, that kind of intelligence will be helpful..." She then turned to Fury to clarify her statement and answer his question. "We have...safeguards in place to protect information about our organization. And I'm the Hunter."

"Which makes former Detective Esposito over there the Warrior Prophet," declared Fury. He scanned the information in front of him, shaking his head in amazement as he realized how powerful each of the five new people in front of him truly were. "It's no wonder Director McPherson is so protective of you..." he mused. He shook the amazement out of his mind quickly, though, choosing instead to focus on the present mission. "Where are we with the North Star?" he asked Thor and Barton. "Any luck tracking down the Prophet?"

Barton shook his head, getting his boss quickly up to speed. "The Prophet is dead, sir. We believe Loki may have lifted the North Star off the body before we were able to get to it."

That probably qualified as the last news Fury wanted to receive, and it showed as he started pacing the room, letting out a string of curses that caused even Esposito to blush. He turned to Thor. "I thought Loki was going to face 'Asgardian Justice'?!"

Thor was starting to hate hearing that question. "He did," he told Fury. "We gave him life in prison."

"Obviously the prison wasn't secure enough to hold him," countered Fury.

"It gets worse, Director," Steve admitted. "We believe Loki's in league with a powerful wizard called the Dragon Master who helped him escape from prison."

"That's what you were so hesitant to tell me earlier, wasn't it?" asked Fury. Steve nodded. "But you said you have a plan to track the North Star, right? And if we find the North Star, we find Loki?"

"Yes, sir," Steve replied.

"Do it," ordered Fury. "Whatever you need to do to make this happen, do it. Doctor Banner, we repaired your lab. Can I assume you and Mr. Stark remember where it is?"

Banner nodded, then frowned in confusion. "I haven't been informed of the specifics of how I fit in to finding this North Star..."

Ryan cut off Banner's unspoken question. "I'll help you, Doctor Banner." Banner nodded, and the three men departed for the lab.

"I'd like a quiet room to meditate in, if one is available, Director," Beckett requested. "I have some leads I can follow up on about the North Star itself, see if I can get us a better idea of what we're up against."

Fury nodded, too angry at the prospect of having to face Loki to question the unusual request. He simply tapped on the communicator on his wrist. "Agent Hill?"

"Yeah, boss?"

"Can you meet Ms. Beckett up here in the conference room and help her find a room to meet her needs?"

"Yes, sir," Hill replied without question.

Fury ended the transmission with his lieutenant quickly. "Anyone else?"

Lanie raised her hand. "I'd like to see Agent Romanoff."

Fury nodded. "Of course. Barton, go with her."

"Thank you, sir," said Barton. He then quickly led Lanie down out of the room and down toward the medical bay.

Finally, Fury turned to those who were left in the conference room. "The rest of you, put your heads together. You guys have faced this Dragon Master before?" When Castle and Esposito both nodded, Fury continued, "then we need to make sure we have a really solid idea of what we might end up dealing with and how to fight it. Let's go, people."

#

The peace and quiet of the temple courtyard was a disconcerting contrast to the manic hive of activity that existed on the aircraft carrier. Beckett stared up at the clouds floating across the crisp, blue sky, knowing that her counterpart would grant her an audience in his own time. It was only a few brief moments, though, before Wangchuk came out to greet her warmly. "Sister!" he called out before embracing the woman who had inherited his gifts. "How may I be of service to the honored ones?"

"We are facing an ancient weapon," Beckett replied. "The North Star has fallen into the hands of an enemy. Do you know anything about it?"

Wangchuk's face fell with every new piece of information coming from his successor. "The North Star is indeed, dangerous," he replied. "I thank the gods that we never had to face an enemy who was wielding that particular talisman."

"What makes it so dangerous?" asked Beckett.

"It is a weapon of great power," Wangchuk replied. "If a wizard is wielding the North Star his powers will magnify threefold."

Beckett swallowed hard, knowing that would be the last thing her fellow Guardians would want to hear. "We believe a wizard is in possession of the North Star."

Wangchuk's face paled at the news. "Truly grim tidings, indeed," he exclaimed. "For the North Star does not simply magnify our abilities, sister. It replicates them."

Beckett nodded. "We have seen this in action. People who had no powers before they came in contact with the North Star came away from the encounter able to achieve our abilities with varying degrees of success."

"Varying degrees?"

Beckett nodded again. "They could replicate the Xiānshī's ability to acquire memories, for example, but couldn't organize them. Or they could read minds like the Mùshī but can't project. Pale shadowy impressions of our abilities but not full copies."

"Hmmm..." commented Wangchuk, considering Beckett's words very carefully. "Interesting...perhaps our legends about the North Star are not as accurate as we would have believed."

Beckett muttered under her breath, "it wouldn't be the first time..."

"Careful, sister. There are always kernels of truth in even the most inaccurate of legends. It falls to us to have the wisdom to determine fact from fiction."

"Yes, honored one," said Beckett, relenting with a quiet nod. "Is it possible to destroy this talisman?"

Wangchuk shook his head sadly. "My predecessors were not able to do so, and so they hid it deep in the mountain caves, where it lay dormant for centuries. And unless you can find and wield a hammer forged by the gods themselves, I fear that is the only option for you as well..."

#

Barton stood in the doorway, watching his partner sleep. She looked so fragile, so helpless...he hated seeing her like that. "Can you help her?" he asked the woman standing in the doorframe next to him.

"Absolutely," Lanie said with complete confidence. "Can you wake her up for me?"

Barton agreed with a brief nod, then crossed the room to go to his partner's bedside. "Tasha?" he asked, gently nudging his partner, "Tasha, can you wake up for me?"

Natasha squinted and blinked against the brightness of the lights as she slowly awakened from a nap. "Hey," she greeted her partner. "How's it going? The investigation?"

"We're making progress," Barton replied with a smile. "But we need you back out there with us."

Natasha leaned back against the pillow with a weary sigh. "I wish I *could*," she lamented, "but the doctors say I'm not healing fast enough. I could be stuck in this bed for two weeks."

Barton glanced hopefully over to Lanie, who nodded as she crossed to the opposite side of Natasha's hospital bed. "I found somebody who may be able to help you with that, Tasha."

"Agent Romanoff, I'm Doctor Parrish," Lanie greeted her potential patient. "I'm...something of an expert in helping women who have been attacked by these wizards. May I examine you? I think I might be able to help you get back on your feet as early as tomorrow."

Natasha's eyes widened in surprise at Lanie's abbreviation of her estimated recuperation time. "You really think you can get me out of here that fast?"

Lanie nodded. "Maybe sooner."

That was the best news Natasha had heard since she woke up in a hospital bed. "What do you need me to do?"

"Just close your eyes and relax," replied Lanie. When Natasha followed her instructions, Lanie imitated her patient's behaviors, then grabbed her hand to enter into the healing trance...

A second later Lanie jumped out of the trance with a start. Barton was instantly concerned. "Doctor Parrish? What is it?"

It took Lanie a few moments to compose herself and recognize what she saw during her trance. "I'm sorry," she apologized to Barton and Natasha. "It's just...your system is truly unique, Agent Romanoff. I wasn't expecting it. May I try again?"

Confused, Natasha nodded...and her eyes widened as a feeling of warmth and energy flowed slowly into her hand, through her body, then down her legs and out through the heels of her feet and the tips of her toes. Natasha slowly closed her eyes, leaned her head back and rested against the bed behind her, letting the sensation wash through every cell in her body...

It was as if time had stopped in the medical bay room. Barton was holding his breath, hoping and praying that this odd little treatment was going to do everything that Lanie had promised. Natasha had stopped moving, too wrapped up in how the treatment was making her feel...

...and Lanie was flying through Natasha's body, healing every system she recognized and carefully studying anything that was odd or unusual. She took two passes through Natasha's body, careful to make sure that everything was left in her body's version of normal as opposed to what would be considered 'normal' for everyone else. The two women opened their eyes simultaneously as Lanie came slowly out of her trance. "You're all set, Agent Romanoff."

"So that's it?" asked Barton, confused. He turned to his partner for confirmation. "Tasha? How do you feel?"

Natasha took stock of her physical state, her eyes widening with shock and amazement as she realized just how *good* she felt. "Amazing," she replied to her partner. "Like I've slept for a month and had a week at the spa. Is that *your* doing, Doctor Parrish?"

Lanie nodded. "Your body is like nothing I've seen, Natasha. That's what kept me from starting the treatment at first; there was so much about you that's been...modified that I was having trouble adjusting to it. Once I got used to the...idiosyncrasies of your body, though, speeding up the healing process wasn't hard at all. At this point you're perfectly fine."

Natasha was flabbergasted. "How? Who are you?"

"She's a Guardian, Natasha," Barton replied, slightly awestruck at what he had just witnessed. "They're helping us track down the North Star."

Natasha nodded, accepting Barton's explanation without pushing too much further, lest she, as the American expression went, looked a gift horse in the mouth. "So at this point, the only thing that's standing between me and going back out in the field is an ok from a SHIELD doctor?"

"Yep," Lanie replied with a confident smile.

That was all Barton needed to hear. He jumped up like he was sitting on a spring and yelled down the hallway at the top of his lungs. "DOCTOR! I NEED A DOCTOR IN HERE *NOW*!"

#

Ryan walked into the clean, sterile lab that looked like something out of a science fiction novel and stopped. So many nightmares had plagued him over the past year: the fear of being discovered, the fear of losing his family...

The fear of being studied and dissected in a lab just like this one. And now he was about to *volunteer* to do exactly that.

Banner studied the face of his new friend carefully. It wasn't hard to tell what the younger man was thinking, especially since they had been things he himself had worried about many times over the years. "I help you, you help me, remember? No way in hell I'm going to jeopardize that." Ryan nodded, appreciating Banner's attempt to be reassuring.

Then Stark stormed past both men, walking into the lab like he owned the place. "Okay," he announced to the other two men, "so what are we doing here?"

"From what Steve told me, you were able to find the Tesseract because you could track it's energy signature, right?"

Banner nodded. "Basically, yeah."

"The North Star should have a trackable energy signature as well," Ryan told them.

"We had decades of data on the Tesseract to use as a guide," countered Stark. "What do we have on this North Star?"

Ryan swallowed hard. "You have me."

Stark's eyes widened as Banner averted his gaze away from Ryan. "You?" asked Stark.

Ryan nodded. "From what we've been able to learn, our abilities are powered by the same energy that runs through the North Star. I'm a conduit for this energy. So I figure you could use me to learn what you need to know to track the North Star."

Stark seemed to consider the idea carefully. He called up a couple of windows on the giant 'portable' computer workstation he was standing in front of, and his eyes widened further as he studied the results. "It could work," he exclaimed. "Bruce, come here and take a look at this..." When Banner crossed the lab to stand next to Stark, the billionaire explained, "I've been working on a high energy detection camera. Look at what the camera sees when it looks at me."

Banner watched as Stark called up a new window on his screen that showed a clear, unblemished image. "Looks fairly normal."

"Yep," said Stark, "now look at what it sees when I turn it on you."

The camera panned over to Banner, who was surprised to find that the image had one distinct difference. "What's that blur the camera's showing around me?"

"If I had to hazard a guess," Stark replied, "I'd say it was the big guy."

Banner tried to act like the information was no big deal. "Low level gamma radiation, you think?" The scientist was duly impressed when Stark nodded. "Pretty sensitive camera."

Stark was just about to drive his point home. "Now, look at what the camera sees when I point it at our Guardian friend over there..."

Banner watched as Stark panned the camera over to Ryan, then gasped, loudly, at the result. The glow surrounding Ryan was clearly visible almost an inch around his camera image. "You think that's the energy he was talking about?" Banner asked, amazed.

"Unless he's a saint and neglected to tell us," Stark replied.

"Can you tell exactly what *kind* of energy it is?" Banner asked quietly.

"If I had to hazard a guess," Stark replied, typing furiously into a virtual keyboard, "I would say it's chi. But that's just a guess."

Ryan was getting tired of the two scientists talking like he wasn't in the room with them. "That's been the working theory in our research as well."

Banner nodded, even as he frowned in confusion. "It makes sense, considering how all the legends about you come from eastern cultures. The problem is, there's never been a scientific study that has ever successfully *measured* chi."

Stark was all business. "Well there's nothing like being the first one to prove something, is there?" He pulled an examination table away from its spot against the wall and grabbed a bunch of electrode pads from a nearby drawer. "Mr. Ryan," Stark ordered around the Guardian with a mischievous glint in his eye, "take off your shirt."

#

An hour later, though, the mischievous grin was long gone from Stark's face. In fact, he seemed to be tempted to go put on his famous Iron Man suit solely for the purpose of throwing his oversize portable computing unit out of the nearest window. "This is ridiculous!" he exclaimed in frustration. "I've run every test I can think of and all we've got to show for it is the camera footage. We're getting exactly nowhere."

Ryan hung his head, feeling guilty over the group's lack of progress. "I'm sorry, guys. When I've had to channel the energy in the past I've always had a human target to pour the energy into..." An idea quickly formed in Ryan's mind. "Doctor Banner?"

"Yeah?" asked Banner.

Ryan sat up on the examination table, leaving enough space for someone to sit across from him. "Would you sit next to me, please?"

Banner was equal parts curious and cautious as he crossed from Stark's side of the lab to where Ryan was sitting. "What are you thinking?" he asked Banner quietly.

"Testing a theory," Ryan replied. "You help me, I help you, remember?" Closing his eyes, Ryan opened a connection with Banner's mind, and poured all of his energy into it...

#

Ryan woke up, as he intended, on the Hulk's side of the wall. And the Hulk was not happy to have visitors. Ryan rolled quickly out of the way just as the monster's large hand was just about to crush him. He ducked, rolled, and use the wall to dodge blow after blow before testing his theory. "BANNER!" he yelled out at the top of his lungs. "CAN YOU HEAR ME?!"

"HE NOT HERE!" the Hulk growled. "THIS MY HOME!"

"I don't think so," Ryan countered as he flipped off the wall, narrowly missing another punch from the Hulk. "This is Banner's mind. You're just squatting in it."

This sent the Hulk into a howling rage. "MY HOME!" he yelled. "NOT HIS!"

"Who built you this home?" Ryan argued, rolling away from a foot stomp. "He did. He's terrified of you."

"NO!" yelled the Hulk. "THIS MY HOME!"

"This isn't a home," Ryan insisted. "It's a prison!"

The Hulk stopped dead in his tracks. "NO!" he cried, unwilling to accept the argument even as it was starting to sink in. "My home," he growled. The monster was panting, seemingly catching his breath. "Quiet here. Peace here."

The reaction was an opportunity Ryan seized upon. He poured positive energy into the arena, using all of his energy to counterbalance the extreme emotions that wrapped around him like a blanket. "You want peace so badly," Ryan whispered, "I can help with that."

The Hulk staggered unsteadily on his feet, moving as if he was getting drunk off the energy Ryan was pumping into the area. Closing his eyes, the beast smiled as he backed into the wall, sliding down until he was collapsed in a heap on the floor.

Ryan approached the Hulk tentatively, feeling for all the world like he was circling a giant feral green dog that would bite him if he made the wrong move. "How ya doin' there, big guy?" asked Ryan, trying to gauge the beast's mood. "You like that?"

He needn't have worried. The Hulk was blissfully happy, taking deep breaths to try and let Ryan's energy flow through his entire being. And it was only after a half-dozen long, deep breaths that the beast opened his eyes. "Hulk like you," he said, trying to use his giant hand to 'pat' Ryan on the top of his head. "You come back, right?"

Ryan couldn't help but chuckle. "I promise, big guy," he replied with a smile, "I'll come back whenever you want."

"Good," said the Hulk, his eyelids fluttering like he was slowly falling asleep. "You come back soon."

And with those words, the Hulk fell asleep...snoring loudly. Ryan chuckled and shook his head, amazed at the beast's entire change in demeanor. _Wonder how Banner's feeling, _he thought...

#

Ryan woke up atop a pile of wooden rubble. His eyes wandered from their focus on the ceiling to take in the chaos around the lab. A ceiling-hung monitor was hanging precipitously by a live wire, causing crackling, popping and sparks. The few items that had been scattered around the floor were pushed against the wall. Stark appeared to be long gone.

And Banner? Banner was a few feet away from Ryan, slowly waking up himself...

...and his clothes were ripped to shreds.

Apparently something had happened while they were out. Something *big*. "Banner!" Ryan exclaimed. "Banner, wake up!"

Banner forced himself back to consciousness quickly. The chaos that he saw around him was a sight that was all too familiar. "Ohhhh, man. This is bad," said Banner.

"Yeah, no kidding," agreed Ryan. "You might want to get dressed, too."

Banner looked down at his clothes (or lack thereof) and blushed before he frowned as confusion set in. "What the hell happened? I mean, it looks like he showed up, but if he had, this place would be a lot more torn up..."

The pair's musings were interrupted as a pair of sweatpants flew through the lab's entrance. Banner gratefully shimmied out of the tattered remains of his old clothes and slipped into the sweats as the missing voice called back to them from the hallway. "Is it safe?"

Banner smiled, knowing who had asked the question and why. "I'm back, Stark," he called back to his friend. "We're okay in here?"

It was only then that Stark peeked his head in the doorway. "You're *both* okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine, Stark," Ryan called back.

Finally satisfied that his life was no longer in potential danger, Stark re-entered the room and surveyed the damage. "What happened in here, Stark?" Banner asked, trying to piece together the disjointed pieces of evidence. "I mean, I obviously changed, but..."

"Oh yeah, you changed into the big guy," Stark agreed, "but that was it."

Banner was having trouble believing what he was hearing. "That was *it*?"

Stark nodded. "Yeah. It was weird. You changed into the big guy, and then he just...sat there. And the expression on his face..."

Ryan was confused by the way that Stark's voice trailed off. "What?"

"It was like...it was like the big guy was smiling."


	8. Chapter 8

Castle watched Fury at the helm of the futuristic-looking deck of the aircraft carrier with only half-interest. Under any other circumstances, the author might have been following Nick Fury around like a puppy, trying to find out what each and every button on the command deck was for. His current set of circumstances, though, were far from normal.

He was sitting next to an alien. An honest-to-goodness strange visitor from another *planet*. And one who had, apparently, been to Earth so much that the ancient Scandinavian people had seen fit to consider him a *god*.

How do you start a conversation with a *god*? Castle kept stealing quick glances at Thor, trying to figure out how to talk to him. Finally, he threw caution to the wind, deciding that it was better to just say *anything* than to continue to sit there in awkward silence. "So..." he began, "do you come here often?" Esposito blushed and rolled his eyes, embarassed on his friend's behalf.

Thor, for his part, didn't seem to notice. "From time to time," he replied. "Although this is the first time I have found magic here."

"Really?" asked Castle, surprised by Thor's statement. "You've *never* encountered magic before, here on Earth?" Thor shook his head...leaving Castle dumbfounded. "But...the legends..."

Thor, to Castle's amazement, blushed. "Most of those legends were about me or my people," he admitted.

Castle's eyes flew wide. "Is magic *common* among your people?!"

"No," Thor replied quietly, shaking his head. "It is, however, common among the royal family."

Beckett overheard Thor's comment as she re-entered the conference room. "What is common among the royal family?" she asked.

Thor turned around to face the quiet Guardian. "Magic, miss. Or rather, what those on your world might consider to be magic. Our 'magic' is powered by an object called the Tesseract. I believed it to be similar to your North Star..."

"Until you met us," said Castle, completing the thought. Thor nodded.

Beckett took a seat at the large conference table next to Thor, focusing all of her attention on the being in front of her. "Can your Tesseract enchant objects, by any chance?"

Thor frowned even as he nodded in reply to the question. "If I am understanding what you mean by enchantment correctly, miss, then aye, it can."

Castle watched the exchange between the 'god' and his fiancée with an ever-growing curiosity. "What did they tell you?" he asked Beckett.

While Thor had no idea who 'they' were, Beckett understood the reference immediately. "They said that the only thing that can destroy the North Star is one of us wielding a hammer forged by the gods."

Thor went from confused to shocked in a heartbeat. "A hammer?"

Beckett's smile grew even wider. "The legends about you spoke of a hammer..."

"Aye," Thor agreed quickly, cutting Beckett off. "But your...friend said that one of *you* needs to be wielding it?" When Beckett nodded, Thor stood up from the table. "Then perhaps we should see if it will let you wield it..."

Esposito frowned in confusion as he and Castle followed Thor and Beckett out of the conference room. "Hold up, his hammer has to *let us* use it?"

Castle could only shrug.

#

The walk from the conference room to the cargo hold was quiet, but also quick, for which Castle was grateful. Thor seemed to be focused more on walking than talking, and the silence was making Castle uncomfortable.

Thor, for his part, seemed far more intent on finding the reinforced container where Fury was keeping his hammer. It didn't take him long; the container started shaking from the moment Thor entered the room and didn't stop until he touched the container. "My hammer is known by the name Mjölnir," he announced to the group as he opened the container.

Esposito studied the oversized lump hammer as its owner lifted it from the exceedingly large, heavily reinforced case. "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor..." he told the group.

Thor stared at Esposito in amazement. "How can you read that?"

"You shook my hand when we first met," Esposito replied with a shrug.

"Director Fury called you the Warrior Prophet," Thor mused out loud, recalling the earlier conversation. "Is that your gift, Mister Esposito?"

Esposito nodded. "Once I shook your hand I learned everything about you. Including how to read this inscription."

Thor backed away from the container. "That inscription has, so far, prevented anyone from being able to lift the hammer other than me. There was a time where the inscription stopped me from being able to use it..."

"Your own hammer deemed you to be unworthy to pick it up?" asked Castle incredulously.

Thor nodded again before turning his attentions solely back to Esposito. "Perhaps we should start with you, Mister Esposito."

Suddenly nervous, Esposito nodded, quietly switching positions with Thor. He took a deep breath to steady his focus, wrapped his hands around the hammer's handle and pulled.

Beckett was beaming with confidence as she watched Esposito handle the oversize weapon. "Any problems, Espo?" she asked her partner, her tone half-teasing.

Esposito shook his head and shrugged. "Nah. Feels like a regular hammer."

Thor shook his head in amazement, then stopped quickly as inspiration struck him. "Mister Esposito, would you be so kind as to take Mjölnir to Doctor Banner and Mister Stark?"

"Why?" asked Castle.

"The hammer has the power to work as a mystical object detector," Esposito replied, his copy of Thor's memories making the same connection that the Norse god had. "It's possible that ability could be used to find the North Star."

"Aye," agreed Thor.

Esposito turned and sprinted, hammer in hand, toward the lab.

#

Ryan felt two intense pairs of eyes staring him down, looking for answers. "What just happened here, Mister Ryan?" asked Banner. "First you tell me you're going to test out a theory. The next thing I remember after that is waking up on a pile of plywood in a room that where the big guy put in an appearance but *didn't* trash the place and Stark tells me that he actually caught him *smiling*."

"Why is that a problem?" asked Ryan, confused.

"Because he doesn't smile!" exclaimed Banner.

"How do you know?" countered Ryan.

Banner seemed stunned for a moment by the question. "Because...because he's...he's a creature of pure rage. He's...he's triggered by it. *Fueled* by it. And a big green rage monster sure as hell doesn't..."

"You're wrong," Ryan insisted, quietly cutting Banner off.

Banner was rendered speechless by Ryan's quiet, assured confidence. So Stark spoke for him. "He's *wrong*?" he asked Ryan.

"The 'big guy' is not a creature or a monster," Ryan replied to Stark's question, but his words were directed entirely at Banner. "He's you. He's as much a part of you as the man I'm standing in front of right now. And he wants the same thing that you do."

"And what is that, exactly?" asked Banner, his voice laced with annoyance.

Ryan knew the answer to Banner's question could be summed up in one simple word. "Peace." Banner swallowed hard...but didn't respond, because he knew that Ryan was right. Ryan, though, was just getting started. "I think you were supposed to be an empath," he mused. "A pretty powerful one, if the big guy's any indication..."

"Okay, now I'm really lost," said Stark. "What are you talking about?"

A third voice joined in the conversation, providing the explanation Ryan's mind had been searching for. "The chance to become a Guardian is genetic," said Lanie.

The three men turned to find Lanie standing with Barton and a woman that Ryan didn't recognize...but Banner and Stark both did. "Agent Romanoff," Stark greeted Natasha with a warm smile. "It's good to see you on your feet."

"It's good to *be* on my feet," agreed Natasha.

Lanie seemed eager to get away from Natasha's healing and back to Ryan's problem. "When someone who is born with the predisposition toward Guardianship is exposed to large amounts of energy that gene kicks in and their ability emerges." She then switched her focus from giving an explanation to the group to helping her friend. "Ryan, do you think Banner got *flipped*?"

"Flipped?" asked Stark.

Ryan briefly explained the terminology to the group before answering Lanie's question. "It's an expression we came up with to mark the point when someone becomes...like us. But I don't think he got flipped...exactly." He turned to Banner. "Is this explanation making any sense? *Were* you exposed to massive amounts of energy at some point in your life?"

Banner swallowed nervously. "How much energy?"

"Enough to have killed you," Ryan replied.

Banner nodded. "Gamma radiation. I was working on an experiment..."

Ryan cut off Banner's story with a raised hand in order to make his point. "I was afraid of that. Doctor Banner, one of my abilities is to channel a pure form of the energy that fuels us as Guardians and, I *think*, is being radiated by the North Star."

"That's why anyone who comes in contact with the North Star gets flipped?" asked Stark.

Ryan nodded. "But the reason that Stark's initial experiment didn't work is that I can't pour that energy into just anything. I have to channel it into a person. Specifically, a person who has the gene."

"So you *do* think Banner got flipped?" asked Lanie, confused.

Ryan shook his head. "I think he *would* have flipped, if he had been exposed to the right energy source." While he finished explaining his theory to Lanie, Ryan turned to deliver the last part of that explanation mostly to Banner. "But because you were exposed to this gamma radiation instead..."

Banner immediately knew where Ryan was headed. "I got *him*."

"You got him," agreed Ryan.

"Is there any way to flip the switch back?" asked Banner, stubbornly refusing to give up on his last shred of hope.

Lanie shook her head. "Not that I've seen. But I can try if you'd like me to."

"Please." Banner crossed the cluttered lab in a hurry, not wanting to waste a second. Remembering the legend, he grabbed Lanie's hands as soon as they were accessible to him. "Please," he begged, "if there's anything you can do..."

Ryan shushed the group as he watched Lanie close her eyes. He opened a connection to the healer, ready with the support and focus he thought she might need, and he felt Lanie draw from that well of energy almost immediately.

Natasha watched, fascinated, as the trio staggered and twitched while Lanie worked on Banner. "Did it look like that when she..."

Barton shook his head. "It just looked like she was holding your hand. How did it feel?"

Natasha hesitated, having trouble putting words to the experience. "It was a little like getting a massage," she finally admitted, "from the inside out."

"Wow," mouthed Barton, having trouble wrapping his head around the idea. Finally, though, he finally decided to focus on what was most important. "I'm just glad you're okay, Natasha..."

The hitch in Barton's voice was what caught Natasha's attention. She turned her attention away from the scene in the lab and studied her partner. There was a fatigue in his eyes and a residual sadness in his expression...it spoke to her of something she wasn't sure she was ready to face yet. So Natasha returned her focus to the lab just as Lanie and the two men snapped out of the healing trance with a collective gasp for air. Lanie's expression turned grim almost immediately. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "I tried to get down to the chromosomal level, but I just couldn't drill down that far."

Banner waved off the apology. "I haven't felt an energy surge like that since the experiment," he insisted. He turned to Ryan. "Was that *you*?"

"I'm just the battery," Ryan replied, dismissing the question. "The rest was all Lanie."

"And with all that energy there was still nothing you could do..." Banner collapsed into a nearby chair.

Lanie studied the despair in Banner's features and felt compelled to apologize again. "I'm sorry," she told him.

"Don't be so quick to give up," Ryan insisted. "I was just testing a theory. I never said it was the solution."

Banner looked up, his expression confused, but hopeful. "It's not?" he asked Ryan.

Ryan shook his head. "At this point, all we've done is establish the ground rules."

"So what now?" asked Banner.

"Now," Esposito announced to the group as he joined the conversation. "Now we find the North Star. And destroy it."

Stark's eyes widened when he saw Esposito. "Do you know what that is?" he asked.

Esposito tossed the hammer between his hands, trying to remain casual. "What, this old thing?" he teased. "This is going to help us find the North Star."

Stark was still stuck on the visual image before him and ignored everything that Esposito had said. "That's Thor's hammer."

"I know," said Esposito.

"You don't understand," Stark insisted quickly, "that's *Thor's* hammer. Until you walked in here I didn't think anyone else could even pick it up."

"Really?" Esposito replied, trying to act surprised. He tossed the hammer in Stark's direction.

Stark tried to grab the hammer by its handle, only narrowly missing losing his toes when the hammer crashed unceremoniously at his feet. He started to pull at the handle of the hammer, grunting with exertion at the amount of effort it was taking out of him to try to lift the hammer.

Natasha couldn't resist the opportunity. "Not quite so powerful without your suit, are you, Stark?" she teased.

Stark rolled his eyes at Natasha's comment before returning his attention solely to Esposito. "How the hell did you do it?" he exclaimed, exasperated.

"Doesn't matter," Esposito replied with a shrug. He picked up the hammer by the handle and gave it a flip. "What does matter is that you should be able to use this hammer and that super-sized brain of yours to track down the North Star."

"How?" asked Stark.

"Mjölnir has the ability to find enchanted objects," Esposito replied. "All you have to do is point it in the right direction."

Inspiration hit Stark almost immediately. He practically ran over to his computer, punching in commands as soon as his fingers could reach the keyboard. "It could work," Stark exclaimed, running a hand over his face as he carefully considered the results in front of him.

Banner's curiosity was sparked by Stark's enthusiasm, and he moved away from the Guardians to stand next to his fellow scientist. "What did you find?"

Stark punched a few keys on the computer's keyboard to call up his results. "Well, before you...checked out," he told Banner, "the spectrometer was able to get an energy signature out of the energy that Ryan was pumping through the two of you." Stark then turned the camera on Esposito. "Notice anything here?"

The computer did all of the calculations faster than even Banner could. He studied the tendrils of energy reaching out from the hammer before reading the conclusions that the computer was telling him. "The hammer's a match. It's giving off the same energy."

"I think it's working like a bloodhound," Stark exclaimed, his excitement growing by the moment. "It's used Esposito to pick up on the scent and has started looking for a match. If we can just find a way to boost that energy and translate the information..." Stark jumped up with a start and sighed as the lab's state of disarray hit him full force. "Okay, all hands on deck," he announced to the group. "We need to get this lab back together asap."

"Barton, go get Castle," Ryan told the SHIELD agent. "He'll be able to put this lab back together a lot faster than we can."

"And grab Thor if you can find him," chimed in Esposito. "He'll be better able to read the signals coming from the hammer than I am." When Ryan started to study him curiously, Esposito simply shrugged. "He's still an *alien*, Ry. Some of his memories are a little hard to process..."

"On it," agreed Barton, taking off toward the cargo hold.

Ryan shook his head, chuckling as everyone else joined him to start pushing tables and equipment back into place. His smile faded, though, when he noticed the preoccupied look on Banner's face. "I was just trying to isolate your...problem," Ryan insisted, trying to be reassuring. "I haven't given up yet."

Banner barely acknowledged the comment as he pushed a cabinet back into place. "So do you have a plan?" Ryan shook his head...which seemed to grate on Banner's last nerve. "This was a mistake," he told Ryan as he started to pick up the broken pieces of the exam table. "We're done."

Ryan's eyes widened at Banner's declaration. "You're *done*?! We've barely scratched the surface, and you're *done*..."

Banner cut him off, using a piece of the wooden table to punctuate his words. "You don't understand. You have no idea what it's like to wake up in a strange place. Not knowing what has happened. Not knowing what kind of damage that, according to *you*, I should be blamed for. And all you can come up with is to mess around in my head and play it by ear..."

Ryan started to pour peace into the room, trying to calm the other man down. "Bruce," he spoke gently and quietly. "Take it easy, man..."

"That's enough!" Banner exclaimed. He flung the piece of wood at the nearby observation window...

All work ceased as the window shattered. The people in the lab stared at the broken glass, mostly in open-mouthed shock...except for the man who just entered the room. "Wow," commented Castle, "was that cheap glass or did a truck just run through here?"

"Jury's still out on the truck," Stark mused idly, never taking his eyes off the glass. "But that glass is the highest quality tempered glass on the market. It should be able to withstand large-caliber munitions fire..."

"And you know this how?" asked Castle.

"I made it," replied Stark. He turned to his friend, who was far less...angry than Stark was expecting him to be. "Bruce...did he..."

Banner, to everyone's surprise, shook his head. "Nope. Not a peep."

This confused everyone...especially Natasha. "But...earlier..."

"I was frustrated," Banner shrugged. "I lost my temper..."

Banner, Stark and Ryan shot furtive glances between each other as the same realization seemed to hit them all at the same time. "You're telling me that you didn't get anywhere near angry enough to let the big guy come out?" asked Stark. Bruce nodded. "And yet you got strong enough, all of a sudden, to do...that?"

"Apparently," Banner exclaimed, staring at the broken glass in amazement.

Ryan's...unique perspective on the inner workings of Banner's mind gave him a flash of inspiration. The smile that crawled across Ryan's face made Stark wish *he* was the mind-reader. "Bruce," Ryan approached Banner, "I know you just told me you no longer want me to try to find a way to cure you..."

Banner was wondering where the younger man was going with this. "What are you thinking?"

Ryan decided to just get to the point. "Do you think you can do it again?"


	9. Chapter 9

Loki paced the length of the small room for what felt like the thousandth time. He hated waiting. With a passion. Maybe it had something to do with the years he spent confined to a prison cell that was brightly lit day and night. Maybe it had to do with the sense of powerlessness over his own destiny.

Or maybe he was just bored.

Waiting with a purpose was one thing. That was the glorious rush of anticipation, and anticipation was a feeling he knew he would never get enough of. But waiting without a purpose? There was nothing worse. And unfortunately, that was exactly the situation in which the god of mischief found himself. "What exactly are we doing here?" Loki grumbled, losing what little was left of his patience.

Lóng zhǔ sighed loudly, rolling his eyes and wishing, not for the first time, that he had the ability to get rid of his nuisance of a 'partner' once and for all. "We need an army to defeat your enemies, do we not?" Loki nodded. "We need an army to deal with my enemies, as well. I am trying to create this."

One word stuck out to the god of mischief. "*Trying?*"

Lóng zhǔ sighed again, but this time the sound had an unmistakeable edge of frustration. "I am finding it...difficult to connect with the North Star."

Those were the words that Loki was sure he least wanted to hear. "Difficult?"

Lóng zhǔ used his cane to pull himself up to a standing position, not wanting to waste metaphysical energy on a 'simple' physical act. "There is...something...blocking me," he declared with a sigh as he shuffled to the shack's small window. "Something is preventing me from creating the army that we both desire."

Loki carefully studied the stoic expression on the face of his 'partner'. "Is your enemy powerful enough to block you, even though we are on opposite sides of the planet?"

Lóng zhǔ opened his mouth to protest, then closed it quickly, electing for honesty instead. "He may be," the wizard replied, reluctantly admitting to his reality. "Although I do not believe he carries within him the knowledge of how to affect me here."

"You do not believe..." grumbled Loki, trying to focus his agile mind away from his disappointment in his partner and onto the problem at hand. He started to pace the length of the small room, running his hands through his hair and rubbing the back of his neck as he thought. "I doubt that your enemy is blocking you," he told the other wizard. "Your enemy is a warrior, and warriors are rarely so subtle. No, I think the problem is much simpler..." It was then, and only then, that Loki looked out the window for the first time since their arrival. And discovered exactly where they are. "You...imbecile..." he growled, anger threatening to overwhelm his ability to think things through. "You moronic...excuse...for a..."

Lóng zhǔ tried not to take Loki's comments personally, choosing to focus on the bigger picture and the problem at hand. "You know why I am having this problem..."

Loki silenced the other wizard with a right cross to his jaw. "You've brought us to an *island*, you moron! Running water blocks the practical use of magical energy! By the gods, it's no wonder you can't connect with the North Star." He rolled his eyes, cursing those very gods for saddling him with such an idiot. "It's a wonder we didn't drown in the ocean. Wait, don't tell me...your world doesn't have water..."

"It does not," Lóng zhǔ insisted. "Water is as legendary on my world as magic is on this one." He grabbed Loki's hand by the wrist, twisting it painfully upward until he had the other man in his controlling grip. "Now," Lóng zhǔ continued calmly, "You clearly have a knowledge of the workings of this world that I do not have. I can use the North Star to bring us an army. One that will destroy our enemies and bring this world to its knees under *our* rule. I had hoped to combine your knowledge with my power in a way that benefits us both. But if you continue to persist in being such a nuisance, then perhaps I will just take my chances without you..."

Loki, in response, closed his eyes and centered his focus on the arm that Lóng zhǔ thought he had under his control. Strands of bright blue energy raced up his elbow and across the bodies of the two wizards...eventually sending Lóng zhǔ reeling backwards from the shock of being electrocuted. The strands covered the newly submissive wizard from top to toe, causing him to spasm uncontrollably. Loki couldn't help but smile, utterly satisfied with the results of his spell. He stood up and stretched his legs, rubbing his wrist as the energy surrounding Lóng zhǔ separated from the wizard's body to surround him in a magical cage. Loki knelt down and ran his hands across the physical hardness of the energy 'dome'. "My, my, my, what a reversal of fortune," teased the god of mischief. "Now, here is how this is going to go. *You* are going to tell *me* how to connect with the North Star. And then *I* will create an army to bring *everything* in this world under my control. Including you."

Lóng zhǔ looked up from his cage and glared angrily at Loki...but with the hyperactive strands of blue energy arcing dangerously between them, all the dragon master could do was nod.

#

Ryan stopped running when he caught up to Banner. The scientist was standing in the middle of a plexiglass capsule suspended over what looked like an escape hatch built into the floor. The fear on the man's face gave Ryan the impression that Banner was expecting to see the door of the capsule close on him any minute. "It's not going to happen, Bruce," Ryan told him, attempting to be reassuring.

"But shouldn't it?" countered Banner. The edge in his voice was unmistakable, and reinforced everything that Ryan suspected. "This...cage was built for him, after all. I just bench pressed *two tons* of weight. A dozen reps. Normal human beings can't do that. Which means..."

"You're *not* him," Stark insisted, responding to the part of the conversation he heard as he entered the room.

Ryan almost agreed with Stark's comment. "Actually, you are him...and you aren't."

"And...now I'm totally lost," said Banner.

Ryan approached Banner tentatively, centering himself so that peace radiated from every ounce of his being. "Bruce...I think what happened to you is...unique."

"Yeah, no kidding..." Banner grumbled.

Ryan shook his head. The peace in the room was slowly dissipating as he realized he was having trouble making his point. "I'm serious, Bruce. I think the gamma radiation didn't just change you physically. I think it split your personality. Into you...and him."

Banner frowned, slowly pacing the cell as he considered Ryan's theory. "That's why I was able to bench press all that weight..." he mused.

Stark nodded, catching on to Ryan's point immediately. "You've been able to do that all along, I think, Bruce."

"And it scared you," insisted Ryan.

"Still does," Banner admitted with a nervous shrug.

Ryan nodded. "The idea scared you so badly that you brain created a separate personality and channeled all of your physical changes into it."

"And the Hulk was born," Banner agreed nervously.

"And the Hulk was born," Ryan repeated.

Banner sat on the bench at the back of the cell and leaned his head against the cool, clear material behind him. "So what's your plan, then?"

Ryan swallowed hard, knowing how little Banner was going to like the next thing he was about to say. "We unify the two sides of your personality."

Banner's response was almost exactly what Ryan had anticipated. "You're out of your goddamned mind," he declared, jumping up from the bench and heading straight for the exit. But before Banner made it up the stairs, he turned back to face Ryan, determined to punctuate his point. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that idea is?" He started to cross back toward the other two men with an anger in his eyes that was starting to make Stark nervous. "First, you're basically talking about killing me, which is definitely not an idea I'm a fan of. And *worse*, god, you want to let the most dangerous...thing on the planet stick around on a *permanent* basis?! There's not a cage in the world that can hold him. Not even this one..."

"And what makes you think that the big guy would be the dominant personality?" countered Stark.

Banner stared at his friend, astounded that Stark was taking Ryan's side even when he knew from first-hand experience what the Hulk was capable of. "You've got to be kidding me," Banner exclaimed. "First, let's look at the obvious." He gestured to indicate the differences between his physical appearance and that of his super-sized alter ego. "Me...him. And when you add the rage on top of that..."

"But that's just rage," Stark insisted. "Big. Dumb. Rage."

"Big dumb rage is a pretty powerful thing," countered Banner.

"Sure," agreed Stark. "When it's in control. But that brings me back to the question you didn't answer. What makes you think *he* would be the one in control?" When he realized that his friend still didn't have an answer to his question, Stark pressed on further. "Bruce...you are, without a doubt, one of the greatest minds I've ever met. But the one thing you've never gotten through that thick head of yours is how *strong* that mind of yours really is."

Ryan nodded. "Bruce...everything the radiation exposure did to you physically...your mind has locked all of it up in the big guy. If you were anyone else, the big guy probably would have taken over their personality a long time ago."

"But he didn't," agreed Stark. "Because your mind is far more powerful than the big guy ever could be."

"You're never going to get rid of him completely, Bruce," said Ryan. "I think by now you know that he's part of you." When Banner sadly nodded, Ryan continued, "but I'm convinced, now, that if you can *merge* with him, you'll be the one in control, not him. And you'll finally get your life back."

Banner sighed, turning away to consider what both men had told him without having to look directly *at* them. It wasn't long, though, before he realized that Stark and Ryan were right. As much as it scared him. "All right," he relented, "so when do you want to do this?"

"As soon as you're ready," agreed Ryan.

Banner drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, forcing down the knot of panic that was starting to form in his gut. "Okay," he declared, "then let's do this."  
Ryan nodded. He focused and centered himself, then reached out with his mind to connect with Banner's.

Eyes rolling back in their heads, the two men almost immediately collapsed on the floor of the cell.

#

Banner opened his eyes to find that he was no longer on the helicarrier. As he stood up, he looked around at his plain, white surroundings, his easygoing traveling companion...and the large, grey, stone wall in the distance. "Where are we?" he asked Ryan.

"In you head," Ryan replied. "I figured it was better for us to start on this side of the wall."

Banner swallowed hard, not entirely certain he wanted to hear the answer to the next, most obvious question. "What's on the other side of that wall?"

Ryan's answer was short and to the point. "What do you think?"

"Him?" asked Banner.

Ryan nodded. "Wanted to give you one last chance to change your mind."

Banner quickly considered his options: staying in his 'comfort zone' of forever waiting for the other shoe to drop the minute he got angry or scared...or risking his life and his sanity on Ryan's theory. To him, it was no contest. "I'm not changing my mind. How do we get to the other side?"

The shift was instantaneous. The first thing that Banner noticed was that the big grey wall had gone from being off in the distance to directly behind him...

...and the second thing he noticed was the big, green, muscular monster breathing down on the top of his head. "You back," the Hulk grunted out to them.

Ryan nodded. "Told you I'd come back."

"Who he?" asked the Hulk, motioning to Banner.

"You know who he is," insisted Ryan.

The Hulk let out an ear-splitting roar. "WHY YOU HERE?!" he roared at Banner. "WHAT YOU WANT?!"

Ryan poured peace into the area around them, and the Hulk's breathing slowed immediately. "I promised you peace, didn't I?" asked Ryan?

The Hulk nodded. "You did," he agreed.

"That's what we're here for," Ryan told him. "To bring you peace."

"You...kill me?" the Hulk asked nervously.

Ryan shook his head. "No. We want to set you free."

Banner and the Hulk both stared at Ryan in disbelief. "Set...free?" asked the Hulk.

Ryan turned to Banner, his eyes imploring the scientist to trust him. "Shake his hand," Ryan suggested, tilting his head in the Hulk's direction.

The man and the monster both eyed Ryan warily before following the Guardian's instructions. That skepticism lasted only until the Hulk's giant hand wrapped around the tiny hand of his other half...and the mental "white room" exploded in a blinding flash of light.

#

_Comments?_


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: SPOILER ALERT! THIS CHAPTER HAS A MINOR SPOILER FOR "IRON MAN 3". IF THAT BUGS YOU, STOP NOW AND GO SEE THE MOVIE ALREADY. :D**

Light.

Light was the first sensation that Bruce Banner's mind noticed when he woke up. He squinted against the brightness, using his other senses to help him determine as much as he could about his surroundings. _I'm warm and well-covered, but aside from my boxers, all the other fabric is loose...quiet beeping...ugh, nasty, antiseptic smell._

_So I'm in a hospital bed.  
But where?_

Banner opened his eyes slowly, letting his vision adjust to the brightness. It was then that he heard a very familiar voice. "Hey there, Dr. Phil. Welcome back to the land of the living..."

"Stark." The billionaire had given him the unfortunate nickname after forcing Banner to sit through his absurdly over-detailed account of the incident with the Mandarin. "Where are we?" he asked with a groan.

"Still on the helicarrier," Stark replied with an uncharacteristic brevity.

Banner noticed immediately, and the curiosity forced him to full wakefulness quickly. "How long was I out?" the scientist asked, surprised.

"About six hours," replied Lanie.

Banner looked up to see the healer entering the room to check on him. It was then that Banner noticed who *wasn't* in the room. "Where's Kevin? Is he okay?"

Stark leaned back and let out a sigh, clearly frustrated. "He's fine, as far as I know," he replied.

The billionaire's response confused Banner. He turned to Lanie for a more specific answer. "What does he mean by that? *Is* Kevin okay?"

Lanie didn't answer, choosing instead to focus on Banner's pulse like it held the answers to the universe. So Stark spoke in her place. "Mr. Ryan woke up a few minutes after you guys first passed out. When you didn't wake up right away, he arranged to have you moved here...and then he disappeared."

Banner raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Disappeared? As in took off to somewhere else on the ship?"

"Nope," said Stark, shaking his head. "More like poof. Vanished into thin air."

Banner's eyes widened. "Where'd he go?"

"China, we think," said Stark. "Lassie's gotten a whiff on the North Star's location."

The odd reference snapped Lanie out of her examination trance. "Lassie?"

"After your husband was able to bring us Mjölnir," Banner explained to Lanie, "Stark here decided he didn't want to keep having to call the hammer by its real name. And since it's been leading us around like a bloodhound on the trail..." Lanie nodded, finally appreciating the reference. Banner then turned back to Stark. "So as soon as they knew where to find the North Star..."

"They took off after it," said Stark.

Banner quickly turned his attention to Lanie. "But then why are you still here? Shouldn't you have gone with the others?"

"I offered to stay behind," Lanie replied. "To make sure you were okay."

Banner swallowed hard, a nervous knot suddenly forming in the pit of his stomach. "And...am I okay?"

Lanie nodded, her expression quietly serene. "Physically, you're as close to normal as I think you ever get. How do you feel?"

Banner carefully considered his answer before responding to Lanie's question, surprising himself as he realized what the answer was. "Good, actually. *Really* good..."

Lanie's smiling response was interrupted by a beep from the helicarrier's intercom system. "Stark?" asked Director Fury. "You got a suit nearby?"

Stark snapped to attention, jumping up from his chair immediately. "What is it, Fury?"

"Suit up. We're getting reports of a massive explosion from the North Star's coordinates in China. You can get there faster than we can."

#

The shuttle couldn't seem to move fast enough for Steve, even though the vehicle was shaking under the strain of moving at its speed limits for an extended period of time. Natasha could practically feel the tension radiating off her fellow Avenger. "We're five minutes behind you, Stark," she announced, loud enough for the others on the plane to hear...and hoping that having a timetable would give Steve some comfort. "What are you seeing?"

In the air, Iron Man was decellerating high over the coordinates Stark had given them. "It's not good," he told Natasha. "It looks like the whole place is on fire. Jarvis, I need a scan of the area."

"I detect no signs of life, sir," replied Jarvis. "Temperatures in the area are over 2000 degrees centigrade. I strongly advise against landing anywhere near the site."

Those were the last words Steve could have possibly wanted to hear. He grabbed the radio out of Natasha's ear: the frantic worry in his voice obvious. "Are you *sure*, Stark?"

Stark understood the source of his friend's panic. "Jarvis, can you determine the source of the fire on the island?"

"I...I cannot, sir."

Stark shook his head in disbelief. "You *can't*? What d'you mean, you *can't*?"

"I detect no signs of land at the given coordinates, sir. Whatever caused the fire seems to have vaporized the island and left an oxyhydrogen reaction in its wake. That reaction is the source of the fire."

Stark's eyes flew open in shock. "You mean the *water* is on fire?!"

"I believe so," replied Jarvis.

Natasha heard Steve slump back onto the bench seat behind her. "We have fire suppressant onboard, Stark," Natasha announced into the radio as she quietly returned the earpiece to its regular position. "It should put the fire out so you can go down there and find what happened."

"Yeah," Stark replied absently, still in shock over what the computer had told him. "Thanks, Tasha."

Iron Man shot up in the air and hovered over the scene at cruising altitude, allowing the plane to get in underneath him and put out the fire. He then dove underneath the water, looking for any evidence of the cause of the disaster. Stark could only think of one possible source for the explosion. "Jarvis, scan the area for the North Star's energy signature. Is that...thing...nearby?"

Stark watched as his computer screen showed the progress of the powerful supercomputer as it scanned the area around him. He found he had to force himself to hold still in the water as the scan took a surprisingly long time. "What's going on, Jarvis?" Stark asked the computer with growing impatience.

Jarvis replied with a beep and a compass heading. "I'm detecting a faint reading of the energy signature 17.5 miles to your north-northeast."

Natasha watched as Iron Man shot up into the air in front of her window and took off toward the source of the energy signature. Only one thought was going through Black Widow's mind. "Stark, wait! It could be another trap!"

Stark's only thought was very different from Natasha's. All *he* could think about was the look on his friend Steve's face as he looked at Castle's daughter before they left New York. "It probably is," Stark told Natasha. "But I have to know what happened to them. Steve?"

Captain America's voice was heavy with guilt and grief. "I gotta know, Natasha. If he's willing to take the chance, then so am I."

Natasha sighed, the pain in her friend's voice making the decision for her. "Give us the new coordinates, Stark. We'll be right behind you."

"Roger that," said Stark.

Iron Man sped off in the signal's direction, surprised when all that came up before him was a small, deserted island. "The energy signature is on this island, Jarvis?"

"Affirmative, sir," the computer replied. "One point two miles away from your current location. I detect four people in the area."

Stark was almost stopped in his tracks by Jarvis' last statement. "Did you say *four* people?"

"Yes, sir," said Jarvis.

"Did you get that, Cap?" Stark asked the group in the shuttle.

Steve's voice was considerably brighter than when Stark had last heard it. "I heard, Stark," he replied as the shuttle's launch bay opened. "You think it might be them?"

"It wouldn't surprise me," Stark replied.

Sure enough, Steve and Stark touched down on the beach to find the four Guardians collapsed on the sand, coughing up water. Steve was by Castle's side as quickly as he could get to him. "Mr. Castle! Are you guys all right?"

Castle nodded as Steve helped him to sit up. "We're fine, we're fine," he said between coughs.

"What happened?" asked Stark. "Were you guys thrown clear of the explosion?"

A look of unspoken communication passed between the four Guardians. _Should we tell him_? Castle asked the group through the mind-link.

Beckett shrugged casually. _He's your potential future son-in-law,_ she suggested, _I'm surprised he doesn't know already._

_It's not like it comes up in casual conversation_, Esposito chimed in.

_We know he can be trusted,_ Ryan agreed, wincing as he fought the mix of relief and leftover worry that were pouring off Steve in waves, _and he'll keep it between us. I think he should know._

Castle caught a glimpse of the superhero out of the corner of his eye. The concern in the man's expression was obvious...and, if he was honest with himself, reminded him a lot of how Alexis might have reacted under similar circumstances. _All right,_ he relented, _let's tell him._

Steve was connected to the Guardians' mind-link. Castle shared his version of the memory that was floating through their minds. _After the battle of Central Park, _he explained to Steve, _the Mayan creator god blessed us with the ability to, as he called it, 'pass from the mortal realm at the time and place of our choosing.' Guess none of us were ready to go just yet..._

The shock of the idea knocked Steve out of the mind link. "You mean you guys are *immortal*, too?!" he exclaimed.

"So much for keeping that part between us..." Castle grumbled as Stark stared at him in amazement.

Ryan, for his part, simply carried on the conversation verbally. "We always suspected as much," he admitted with a shrug. "But the chance to test out the possibility just hadn't come up before."

"Until now?" asked Steve. The four Guardians nodded.

#

Banner twisted his head and swung his arm around his body, trying to get his tight muscles to warm up. Lanie chuckled as she watched the scientist go through the ritual...and the sound annoyed Banner to no end. "Okay, what?" he exclaimed.

Lanie suppressed the chuckle immediately, blushing as she remembered Ryan's last instructions to her: _"And for God's sake, don't get him angry if I'm not around!"_ "Sorry," she replied to Banner's question. "But if the last set of your test results is any indication, then there's no point in you warming up. It's not going to make a damn bit of difference in your performance. Start with the bench press."

Banner slid under the machine and pushed the weights upward, grunting with the exertion on each upstroke. He was winded after a dozen reps, but by no means exhausted. "How much weight was that?" he asked.

"We'll get to that," Lanie replied cryptically, "when you're done. Next do a dozen squats." Banner did as he was directed. "A dozen dead lifts." Again, Banner did as he was directed. "Okay, now do a dozen frog jumps."

"With or without the weights?"

"With," replied Lanie, never looking up from her laptop.

Banner's eyes widened for the briefest of moments before he did as instructed. "Is that everything?"

"Not everything." Lanie approached Banner cautiously, with her hands strategically hidden behind her back. She took comfort in the knowledge of her husband's proximity on the helicarrier as it came through clearly in their bond. Lanie sent him a signal that basically boiled down to get over here, pronto! before using the weapon she had been concealing.

Banner screamed as the initial shock from the taser flowed through his system. "What the hell was that?!" he exclaimed.

Lanie frowned in mock disappointment. "Huh," she commented idly, "you're still able to talk. Guess I need to up the voltage."

Banner yelped as Lanie hit him with the next taser blast. "What the hell do you think you're doing?! Have you lost your mind?"

Lanie responded with a casual shrug. "Wow," she mused, feigning surprise, "more voltage and you can still talk. Wonder what will happen if I max it out..."

Banner roared with fury as the taser struck him for the third time. He grabbed Lanie by the lapels of her lab coat and roared directly into her face. "Do you have any idea what you've just done?!'

Lanie smiled warmly as she carefully studied the expression on Banner's face and realized what *wasn't* there. "Absolutely."

"ABSOLUTELY?!" Banner fury seemed to be slowly consuming his ability to speak. So since he was unable to vent his anger with words, Banner wrapped his powerful hands around Lanie's neck and squeezed.

Lanie collapsed to the ground as the other Guardians arrived. Banner staggered back, reeling in shock as the impact of what he had just done hit him full force.

Esposito, to Banner's complete astonishment, didn't seem to have a problem with his wife's condition. In fact, he seemed far more concerned with reassuring *Banner* than he was with mourning his wife's death. "It's ok, Bruce," Esposito consoled the scientist. "You didn't do what you think you did."

Banner's eyes flew open in shock. "I didn't?!"

Esposito shook his head as his wife came to with a start, gasping for air. He turned to Lanie, smiling devilishly. "No way in hell you would have wanted to go out like *this*..."

Ryan, for his part, was sharing his partner's smile. "What part of don't piss him off until I get back didn't you understand?" he teased.

Banner, for his part, seemed to have replaced all of his anger with confusion. "Will someone *please* tell me what the hell is going on here?!" he begged in frustration.

Lanie cracked her neck, content to find out that her windpipe was no longer crushed. She quickly decided to explain her logic to Ryan by answering Banner's question. "Bruce...there was no way you could have killed me."

"But...but I did kill you," countered Banner, his brow furrowing in confusion.

"You did," agreed Lanie. "But there was no way I was actually going to *stay* dead. So I decided to use that to prove a point."

Banner was having great difficulty wrapping his head around what Lanie was trying to tell him. "What point was that?"

"You took one hell of a risk, chica," Esposito chimed in, playfully slapping his wife on the arm. "Good thing it paid off."

Ryan, as well, caught on to Lanie's point immediately. He turned to Banner to spell out the explanation. "Bruce...Lanie just got you mad enough to *kill* her."

"Yeah?"

Ryan made sure to stare Banner down so he could catch the scientist's expression. "What *didn't* happen here, Bruce?"

Banner fought his conflicting emotions just long enough to analyze his activities and behavior since he regained consciousness. His hand flew reflexively to his mouth in surprise, his stomach tightening like the final piece of the mental puzzle had actually hit him in the gut. The combination of hope, happiness and just plain *joy* that shot through his soul charged him up like someone had hooked him up to a battery. "Oh my God..." he exclaimed in wonder and amazement. "Is...is he gone for good?"

Ryan quickly connected with Banner's mind to check for the 'beast within'. "He's still there," Ryan replied. "And we can work on making sure you can call him when you need him. But for now...congratulations. I think you can finally say you have your life back."

#

**A/N: **Hmm...let's see...I've just killed off every major character on the show...and resurrected them...and 'fixed' one of my favorite superheroes.

Sometimes I really love this series. :-D

I hope you guys are enjoying this as much as I am. But I can only be *sure* you're enjoying it if you leave me a comment...

Oh, and I have an idea for the next story, but it's a bit of a stretch even for *this* series. In the comments at the end of "Ascension", Serencie suggested a story set somewhere in the Guardians' extended future (100 or 1000 years into their timeline). I thought that was a really good idea, and I racked my brain to come up with an idea that might work. (Star Trek and Doctor Who crossovers were both on the table at one point.) But finally...the idea that most inspired me was doing the story from the POV of Alexis' 12 year-old granddaughter. Naturally, that would make her a completely original character, even though all of the major characters would show up in the story. The thing is...I need to have some idea whether or not you guys would be willing to read a story (even in this crazy AU) where the main character is a *young* original character. Let me know in the comments!


	11. Chapter 11

Nick Fury was a man who dealt in information. His life depended on knowing exactly what was happening in any situation and what was going to happen three moves down the line. Missions were, to him, a game of 'superhero chess' with the fate of the Earth hanging in the balance of any mistake.

And the worst possible scenario was finding out that you were acting on a massive deficit of information.  
It was a scenario he felt like he had been experiencing far too often lately.

"All right," Fury announced to the room, fighting to keep his barely controlled mask of calm, "I am going to set aside the question of how the four of you survived an explosion that incinerated an entire island. For *now*." The four Guardians in question shifted uncomfortably in their chairs as Fury started to slowly circle the conference table. "What I am far more interested in knowing is how the *hell* the island blew up in the first place!"

"It was Lóng zhǔ," Esposito explained. "He almost exploded over Manhattan in our first encounter but Castle threw a shield up around him."

"So he's dead?" asked Fury.

Castle shook his head. "I doubt it. He probably created an energy bomb, cast to detonate as soon as we arrived on the island."

"And you know this *how*?" asked Fury, his mask of control slowly slipping.

"It's how I would have done it," Castle shrugged.

That was not the answer Fury wanted to hear. "That's how you would have done it..." he grumbled. "Well then, what would be *your* next move, assuming that your enemy is dead..."

"But their enemy isn't dead," Banner chimed in, cutting the director off. "Only half of them are."

"Only Lóng zhǔ could presume his enemies dead," agreed Thor. "My brother, on the other hand..."

A massive explosion silenced all conversation in the conference room. Fury tapped on his earpiece. "Report!" he screamed, as everyone fought to keep their places at the table.

"We've lost two engines," Hill yelled to her boss. "We're crashing!"

"Where are we?" Fury yelled back.

"50,000 feet over Tokyo," Hill replied, "and dropping at terminal vel...wait,"

The sudden quiet and whiplash of a suddenly halted descent confused Fury to no end. "Agent Hill? Report!"

Hill was having trouble saying the truth out loud. "We're...we're over the North Pacific, sir. 500 kilometers northwest of Hawaii. And...sir...I don't know how to say this..."

"Spit it out, Agent Hill," insisted Fury.

"The engines are reporting no problems, sir," Hill admitted. "They've been completely restored."

The eyes of all of the Avengers turned to Castle, who admitted to his part in the solution with a curt nod. That silent confession suddenly caused Fury to be the one at a loss for words. "Let's...let's get this bird in the water, just...just to be on the safe side. Once we're down have our guys go over every inch of those engines. Make sure that it's not a computer glitch."

"Yes, sir," Hill agreed, effectively ending the conversation.

Fury turned his attention entirely on the wizard. "*You* did this, Mr. Castle?" The five Guardians nodded, and the director slumped back in his chair in stunned amazement. "I wish we had known you when we fought Loki the first time. You have no idea the hell I caught over the damage to New York City..." Amazement quickly converted to annoyance when Fury noticed that the five Guardians were all fighting the urge to laugh. "What?"

"We *did* help clean up New York City," Castle explained. "We just had to wait until the publicity blew over. Which wasn't easy, considering the addiction to the spotlight that some of your Avengers have..."

All attention fell on Stark, who blushed, deciding immediately to change the subject. "Does anyone have any idea if the evil wizard twins know that their bombs failed?"

"It's possible that they wrote some sort of notification into their spell," Castle replied, "but I can't say that for sure."

"Then, when you consider the fact that both of these men are *extremely* arrogant," Stark suggested, "we should probably assume that they'll proceed as if all of us are dead. What's their next move?"

"We all know that both of them are bent on world domination," Banner replied, "and in order to conquer the world you...you need an army."

Stark punched a few commands into the SHIELD computer keyboard nearest to him, bringing up a 3D hologram of the Tesseract portal device. "Loki's original plan was to use this device to bring an alien army down to Earth. Can the North Star power such a device?"

Beckett shook her head. "Not on its own."

Castle was in full agreement. "And I doubt Lóng zhǔ has enough familiarity with technology to properly cast a spell that would do the job."

"Plus, I doubt that Loki was able to make an allegiance with another alien race from his cell," agreed Thor.

"So what we *do* know," said Banner, "is that the North Star flips people."

Fury frowned, unfamiliar with the terminology. "Flips them?"

"Gives them abilities similar to the Guardians, but at a weakened degree of strength," Steve explained.

Fury's good eye looked like it was about to fall out of his head. "How close do you need to be to the North Star for this to happen?"

"Pretty close," replied Beckett, "and it doesn't happen to everyone. You have to be born with a particular gene."

Stark turned to Castle. "My question is this: Can the range of the North Star be magnified?"

"We could do it," Castle replied, "but if I wrote the spell it would be a 2-person job. And since Lóng zhǔ doesn't have Ryan..."

"The North Star multiplies Lóng zhǔ's power threefold," countered Beckett. "So he may not need Ryan."

"Loki does also have a degree of power that should not be underestimated," insisted Thor. "If they could find a way to combine their powers together..."

Stark agreed with a curt nod. "I think we have to work under the assumption that they could power such a spell."

Fury carefully considered the idea that Stark was proposing. "Where would he go to cast it?"

Castle and Stark came up with the same answer at the same time: "Stark Tower."

"It's the third tallest building in the world," explained Castle. "The Freedom Tower is only taller because of the spire and you reach four times more people in New York City than you would in Dubai."

"It's also personal for Loki," agreed Stark, "since that's where we defeated him last time."

"All right," announced Fury. "Then we set course for Stark Tower. Unless, of course, you want to get us there earlier, Mr. Castle."

The voice of Fury's lieutenant came up over the intercom. "Director?"

"What?" replied Fury.

"I believe our GPS system is malfunctioning, sir. It says we're over Stark Tower."

Fury resisted the urge to chuckle. "Our GPS is just fine, Hill. Maintain our current position and altitude.

Hill sounded confused. "Uh...okay, sir."

"Suit up, people," Fury announced to the group as he ended the conversation with his lieutenant. "I want you guys down there asap."

Esposito caught up to Stark as the meeting was breaking up. "You want to meet us down there? What about Pepper?"

Stark blew off the concern. "She's fine. When I told her I was headed to the helicarrier she agreed to go to Malibu for the weekend to oversee the rebuild on the beach house. She's on the opposite side of the country from all this."

#

**_Earlier that day..._**

Pepper Potts stepped into the elevator, fidgeting as the floors of Stark Tower passed her by. A nervous knot was forming in the pit of her stomach. Part of her wondered if it was based in the fact that Tony would kill her if he knew she was here; in her gut, though, she dismissed that idea immediately. After everything that had happened to them, everything they had been through...

It was going to be a cold day in hell before Tony Stark could warn her out of the city with a phone call ever again.

Something was going on, she was sure of that. Something that was putting her beloved New York City in danger. And if there was anything that she could do to stop it...she was going to do it. From Stark Tower.

She sure as hell wasn't going to be able to do anything about it from Malibu.

The elevator door opened, and Pepper stepped into their penthouse apartment. The eerie silence was doing nothing to settle her nerves. When she got to the computer, though, the quiet beep of the system's startup routine was oddly comforting. She logged in, grateful as always that her hyper-vigilant boyfriend was oddly lax about changing his passwords. "Okay, Mr. Stark," she announced to no one in particular, "let's see who's coming after you this week..." Calling up the SHIELD database through Natasha's old login, Pepper's eyes widened as she read about the Guardians, Lóng zhǔ, and the return of Loki. A particularly long shiver ran down her spine at the thought of Loki being free to cause havoc in the universe once again. _At least Tony's not going alone on this this time..._her eyes wandered back to the description of the Guardians. They sounded ancient; less like they were modern-day allies and more like legends from a long-forgotten time. Still, the same could probably be said about Thor, so who was she to judge?

A loud thump echoed from above her head, causing Pepper to jump. She stifled the gasp before it could escape her lips; _thank God for small favors..._Tony had given everyone several days off, so the building was supposed to be empty. Which means that the noise she had heard could not possibly be a good thing.

_Showtime..._

Pepper crept to the stairwell, silently opening the door and making her way up the stairs to the roof...which was, as far as she could tell, the source of the disturbance. She opened the door to the roof access, then closed it quickly when she saw that there were two men outside the door. While Pepper did not recognize badly scared Chinese man, the other man had a face that she was sure that she would never, ever forget.

Loki had just arrived on her rooftop. And unless she was mistaken, Lóng zhǔ was with him.

#

Lóng zhǔ quietly walked the perimeter of the roof of Stark Tower, wanting to familiarize himself with his new surroundings. Loki turned in the spot where he landed, his impatience growing by the second. "Well?" he asked the other wizard, his annoyance with his 'partner' clearly evident. "Does this meet with your approval, 'highness'?"

"How many will be reached if we cast the spell from here?" Lóng zhǔ asked quietly, his mind focused on putting together an exact vision for his plans.

"Roughly eight million people," Loki replied.

Lóng zhǔ seemed duly impressed by the number. "And you said that their best and brightest live in one central location?"

Loki spread his arms wide, indicating that they were in the middle of that very spot. "Right here," he told Lóng zhǔ. "The island of Manhattan. Half of the city's population crammed into a 33 square mile area."

"Millions," mused Lóng zhǔ, "under my control..."

"*Our* control," Loki quickly corrected the other wizard.

Lóng zhǔ stared down his counterpart. "Of course," he agreed with a sly smile. "Our control." Neither man seemed to be completely believing Loki's last statement anymore, but Lóng zhǔ decided to set aside the issue...for the moment.

Loki, as well, decided to change the subject. "Casting the spell from here also brings a peculiar irony to this occasion."

"Oh?" asked Lóng zhǔ.

Loki's expression broke into a wicked grin. "This *was* the home of one of the warriors on the helicarrier."

#

Panic shot through Pepper's heart and soul. _Dead? No, no, no, no, no...Tony can't *possibly* be dead. If he were dead, I...I would know... _She kept her breaths shallow, trying desperately to calm her pounding heart without uttering a sound that could put her at greater risk of discovery. _Tony, honey,_ she thought in a silent prayer, hoping that her boyfriend was, indeed, still alive to hear her, _now might be a good time for you to fly in and save the day..._

#

**A/N:** I have absolutely *loved* all the wonderful comments that all of you wonderful people have been leaving lately. Keep 'em coming, folks!


	12. Chapter 12

Even when he knew it was coming, the instantaneous teleportation shift threw Stark for a loop. His agile mind needed to take a minute to process the change in his surroundings...

It was a minute that was going to be seared into his brain for the rest of his life.

Loki's gaze never wavered from a staredown with the metal man in front of him...who clearly was not as dead as the god had believed him to be. And if he's still alive, thought Loki, his 'friends' must not be far behind. _Especially my brother..._

With his partner deep in some sort of meditative trance and the odds increasingly *not* in his favor, Loki knew there was only card left that he could play. His 'ace in the hole', as the human expression went...

Compassion. For *humans*. The compassion that would be their downfall.

Loki pulled Pepper out from the roof access stairwell and held her in front of him with an armbar across her neck. The 'god' wedged himself firmly between the energy shield surrounding Lóng zhǔ and his human 'shield'. "Keep your distance, fool," he yelled out to the heroes around him, "I may not be able to control your friend here...but I can certainly make sure that she suffers."

Stark winced as he heard his girlfriend let out a yelp of pain from the shock Loki sent through her system. Ryan sensed the helplessness and frustration coming from the Iron Man next to him. He opened up a mind-link so the group could communicate without talking. _Stark?_

Stark twitched only slightly at the unfamiliar sensation before recognizing the voice ringing through his mind. _Ryan? That you?_

_Yeah_, Ryan replied. _We should all be linked now. You ok?_

Stark blatantly ignored the question about his emotional state. _What about Pepper?_

_Pepper? _asked Ryan. A happier image of the woman Loki was using as a shield flashed through his mind. _Ah. One sec..._

The mind-link was suddenly flooded by a woman's voice letting loose with an impressive string of curses. Stark was suddenly grateful that his face wasn't visible. _Glad those aren't directed at me today_, he chuckled into the mind-link.

Pepper's mental cursing stopped; her anger quickly replaced by relief, confusion and surprise. _Tony? she asked. Is that you?_

Stark chuckled into the mind-link. _Yeah babe, it's me._

_How...?_

_I promise I'll explain later, _Stark replied, cutting Pepper off, _right now I want to make sure we can get you out of here, okay?_

Another image of Pepper rang through the mind-link. This one showed a clearly furious woman surrounded by an inferno of burning shipping containers. _I think I can take him..._

_Not by yourself,_ Banner insisted. _But we should be able to tag team him if you're up for it..._

Pepper cocked her head as the less familiar voice rang through her mind. _Bruce? Are you here? Where are you?_

A deeper chuckle rang through the mind-link. _A...friend who's helping us is keeping us hidden from your view...and hopefully Loki's as well. He should only be able to see your boyfriend flying overhead if it's working..._

Pepper felt the upward tilt of Loki's head next to hers. _It's working, all right. How do you want to play it?_

_Drop and roll to the left, _Banner instructed, _I'll take it from there._

Okay, agreed Pepper. She elbowed the 'god' in the ribs and dove to her left as instructed, then watched as her friend appeared from out of nowhere...and sent Loki flying out of her sight with a superpowered uppercut. "Okay, I can't do that," she conceded. Pepper accepted Banner's hand as he helped her to a standing position. "Have you been working out?" she asked him.

Banner chuckled again in response. "You could say that," he replied.

The rest of the Avengers and Guardians suddenly appeared around Pepper and Banner as Ryan dropped the last of the perception filter. Castle immediately started blasting at Lóng zhǔ's shield with a barrage of energy bolts. "Lóng zhǔ," he called in a sing-songy tease, "aren't you going to come out and play..."

A bolt got past the dragon master's shield, hitting Lóng zhǔ square in the back. He got up and glared at the adversary he had hoped he would never have to see again. "Sìfāng..." The wizard breathed out the name as an angry curse...

...before he disappeared.

_He won't have gone far, _Castle projected into the mind-link. As Stark touched down, the group spread out to search for their quarry on the nearby rooftops. Beckett was the one to finally spot him. _Empire State Building_, she announced to the group, flashing an image of the wizard on the upper deck of the famous landmark. _He's holding a dozen tourists as hostages._

Castle cursed into the mind-link as the group turned to face their enemy. _Lóng zhǔ knows I won't go after him if it will endanger hostages. _He called out a spell to try and move the hostages...to no avail. _He's shielded the deck. I can't get them out._

The roar of their adversary's outraged voice halted any further attempts at conversation. His voice boomed with a power that shook the windows. "Sìfāng! Why are you not dead?!"

Castle didn't bother to answer, not wanting to waste energy on something as pointless as public display. _I'm going to Macy's, _he told the group, _maybe I'll have better luck if I'm closer._..his mind-voice trailed off as the roars of a dozen wild beasts pierced the air around them on all sides.

Esposito tensed up, the sounds around him echoing the roars of unforgettable battles of the past. _Castle_, he demanded, _we need swords. Now._

_Why do we need swords? _asked Natasha, trying out her mind-voice for the first time.

Esposito's reply was somber and menacing. _Guns are useless when you're going up against dragons._

Steve's eyes flew wide, the shock of the idea knocking him out of the mind-link. "Did you just say dragons?!"

Beckett nodded. "At least a dozen of them."

The surprise of the number caused Ryan to shut down the mind link. "A dozen," he exclaimed, "great..."

"How can I help?" asked Pepper, holding her newly created sword in her hand with a nervous, white-knuckle grip.

Stark opened his visor and turned to face his girlfriend. To Pepper's surprise...Stark was smiling.  
"First, drop the sword for a sec." Pepper glared at her boyfriend, but did as she was told.  
"Hold out your right arm." Again, Pepper complied.  
"Now...whistle."

Pepper glared at Stark, confused. "Whistle?"

"You heard me," Stark replied with firm conviction and a devilish grin. "You do know how to whistle, don't you? Just pucker up your lips and blow..."

Pepper rolled her eyes at the movie reference before letting out a simple wolf whistle...then stared in amazement as a gold-plated metal hand enclosed her own. "I *was* going to give this to you for your birthday," Stark explained, "but since you couldn't seem to find a way to stay out of trouble for *one week*..."

It took less time for the red-and-gold armor to assemble around Pepper than it did for Pepper to recover from the shock of receiving her 'birthday present'. "Tony?!" she asked into the two-way radio in her enclosed helmet. "You made me my own armor?"

"Yep," Tony replied, his smile coming through in his voice even though no one could see it in his own enclosed helmet. "I figured if you refuse to stay out of trouble I should at least give you everything you need to fight it."

Pepper caught the layers of meaning behind the gift and Stark's explanation of it. "Thank you, Tony," she exclaimed in wonder and amazement. "I love it."

"I love *you*," Stark replied with all the love and sincerity he could muster.

"I love you, too," said Pepper.

"Grab your sword," said Stark. As Pepper picked up the no-longer-heavy metal weapon, Stark gave instructions to the computer that was now assisting them both. "Jarvis?"

A crisp British voice replied through the communication system in both suits. "Yes, sir?"

"Is the training wheels program ready to go?" asked Stark.

"Yes, sir," Jarvis replied.

Pepper frowned, not liking where this was going. "Training wheels? Tony, what..."

Her question was cut off as the repulsors in her boots activated alongside Stark's and the couple flew into the air. "C'mon honey," Stark called out joyfully, "let's go kill ourselves some dragons..."

Stark's girlfriend barely heard him...since she was far more focused on screaming at the top of her lungs. "TONY!"

#

Steve watched the couple fly off after the dragons. "Thor, you're the only other one who can go after these...things in the air," he told the god, "get as many of them as you can." Thor spun his hammer without a word and took off after Pepper and Stark. Steve then turned his attention back to the rest of the group. He deferred to Esposito. "Well, General, you guys have fought dragons before. What would you suggest?"

Before Esposito could respond, Castle's attention wandered to Hawkeye's bow and quiver. "How much power can you get out of these things?"

"How much do you need?" countered Hawkeye.

Castle took an arrow out of the quiver and whispered an incantation over the head...which glowed as he handed it to Beckett, who passed it on to Hawkeye with instructions. "Hit that pigeon."

"That one?" Hawkeye confirmed.

Ryan felt like he needed to confirm the instruction for himself. "That pigeon? The one that's ten blocks away?"

Beckett nodded. "Right between the eyes."

Hawkeye let the request register, then drew his bow with a shrug, aimed and fired...

The pigeon exploded.

Castle smiled, satisfied that his spell worked correctly. He grabbed onto Hawkeye's quiver and chanted a stronger version of the same spell. "Your arrows should work on the dragons now," announced the wizard.

Hawkeye nodded in appreciation. "I should be able to take them on from here, then. Thanks."

Esposito took charge of the rest of the group. "The rest of us need to be on the ground."

"Then I need to go after Lóng zhǔ after I drop you guys off," Castle announced. "He weakens with every dragon you guys kill." The wizard then turned to his soul mate to wish her well with a gentle caress of his hand on her cheek. "Be careful, Kate..."

"Always," Beckett replied warmly.

Hawkeye shook his head briefly in amazement as the group disappeared, leaving him alone on the roof. He shook the sensation off immediately, though, as his focus returned to the task at hand. The archer pulled a glowing arrow from his quiver, drew his bow and waited for his opportunity. "C'mon, you overgrown lizards," Hawkeye muttered under his breath, "just let me look you in the eye..."

#

Castle paced the length of his lookout in frustration. His enemy was three buildings over and a good thirty stories over his head...and every attempts he had made at penetrating Lóng zhǔ's energy shield was failing miserably.

The alien wizard seemed to be taking great pleasure in Castle's failures. "Oh, Sìfāng!" he taunted Castle. "Have you, perhaps, *weakened* in your old age?"

"Old age?" Castle grumbled to himself. "I'll show you who's old..." He looked up to face his enemy as best he could...and found inspiration in the legend of his predecessor. Castle raised his hands up to the skies, calling for the four winds to come to his aid. He allowed himself a small smile as a funnel cloud came down, surrounded him, and lifted him into the air. The smile left within moments, though, as he returned his focus entirely to his enemy. Lóng zhǔ stared slack-jawed as his adversary rose up to fight him eye to eye...and then rose above him to look down at the observation deck.

"Let them go, Lóng zhǔ," Castle called out over the cacophony of the winds surrounding him. "Stop hiding behind a shield and hostages. Fight me with honor."

#

Lóng zhǔ looked at the cowering people surrounding him and the shield that was currently separating him from his airborne adversary. The adversary he had tried to kill. And failed. Twice. The dragon master considered his options. While his children would fight valiantly, of that he was sure...he could not be certain that they were going to return to him victorious. Which meant that his shield was temporary.

He looked at his other shield; the frail, terrified beings who were huddling beside the building, holding each other as if they had the power to protect themselves from him. Had it come to this? Had he grown so desperate that he had to use the fear of powerless beings as a secondary shield?

No. If this day was to be his end...he wanted to die fighting like a dragon. And dragons do not hide behind lesser beings. The wizard dropped the shield to the inner core of the tower. "Get out," he growled.

The people didn't need to be told twice. Lóng zhǔ watched his hostages sprint through the door before facing the tornado roaring on the other side of his shield. The ferocity of the barrage attack almost made him smile. "It is just you and me, now, Sìfāng," he told Castle. "Let us end this."

#

_Thanks to everyone for all the wonderful comments so far! Keep 'em coming!_


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N**: Okay, I have a feeling I know why there weren't many comments on the last chapter. I have a feeling that I ended the chapter at something of an awkward moment...too much set up, not enough of what my husband would call "butt kicking for goodness!" Hopefully, this chapter will make up for that...:-)

* * *

_It's a good thing that this is a weekday, _thought Natasha as she warily scanned the skies around Bryant Park. _Hopefully enough people will stay in their buildings that we don't have to worry about many bystanders.._.Her hands were never far away from her sword, even though she kept the point of the blade down to try to make it less conspicuous. Still, the blade felt awkward in her hands, which did nothing to lessen her nerves. "Well, guys?" she asked the Guardians. "You see 'em?"

Ryan shook his head. "I can hear 'em, but they're still too far away..."

A vicious roar pierced the air, cancelling out Ryan's comments entirely. The small crowd of bystanders were in a panic, screaming at the top of their lungs as they scattered in every direction. Natasha tried to keep one eye to the skies while she turned her attention to Banner. "Bruce," she suggested warily, "now might be a good time for you to get angry..."

Ryan turned to fully face Banner, the memory of Banner's last 'test session' replaying through his mind in full detail. "Do you think you can do it, Bruce...?"

An unearthly grumbling growl replied to both comments. Natasha, Ryan and Esposito turned to find that they were no longer fighting alongside a meek scientist, but with a giant green monster that only bared a passing resemblance to their friend. "Bruce?" Ryan asked quietly, unsure of exactly who he was talking to.

The Hulk...smiled. "Yep, it's me."

Natasha's eyes widened with surprise. "Bruce?!" she exclaimed. "You're in there? You're in control now?!"

The Hulk's smile grew even wider. "Completely."

Ryan's smile grew to match the Hulk's...until the loud roar of a dragon halted all other thought. The group ducked and rolled away from the street, frantically dodging the flaming breath of the dragon's first pass.

The Hulk roared at the great beast, then took off after it. It took Banner less than a block to catch up to the dragon. He launched himself into the air, landed squarely on the beast's back and settled himself down in the space between the dragon's head and its powerful wings. The Hulk then grabbed onto the dragon's head, using the leverage of his position to steer the beast so that it would crash-land into the abandoned cars of Sixth Avenue...

...before snapping the dragon's neck.

Ryan found himself smiling as he ran to catch up to the Hulk as he let out a celebratory roar of triumph over his victory. "Having fun there, Bruce?"

"OH, YEAH!" Banner roared, enjoying his victory.

"Think you can repeat that a few more times?" asked Ryan.

"You bet," the Hulk replied.

Ryan chuckled as he turned back to Natasha and his partner. "Just don't smash up too much of the city in the process..."

#

Pepper finally stopped screaming by the time she and Stark leveled off at a reasonable hovering altitude. "What the hell was THAT?!" exclaimed Pepper.

"Sorry," Stark apologized...shortly after the ringing in his ears stopped. "I probably should have explained..."

"Explained *what*?"

"Those training wheels I was talking about? An altimeter and proximity tether." His tone tried to sound light and apologetic at the same time. "So you don't go flying off into space without me there to bring you back to Earth..."

Pepper smiled, which Stark noticed in a small window on his display. "I thought that was supposed to be *my* job," she insisted.

"Not today," countered Stark, briefly matching his girlfriend's smile.

"So how do you want to play this?" asked Pepper.

A cacophony of howling shrieks caught the couple's attention. Three dragons were barreling down on their position with impressive speed. "Castle was nice enough to give us these sharp swords," Stark suggested as he pulled the sword off of his temporarily magnetized back, "We should probably take advantage."

Pepper, whose sword had never left her hands, nodded. "Tony, if these things shoot fire at us..."

"Your suit should be able to withstand one direct assault, Miss Potts," Jarvis chimed in, "but I would strongly advise against either of you taking more than one."

"Duly noted," Stark agreed grimly. "Let's do this."

Stark and Pepper flew head-on toward the first dragon...Pepper holding her sword like her life were dependent on its success. She took a deep breath, lifted the sword over her head as the dragon flew underneath her..."Dammit," she cursed as the sword's swing scraped along the back of the beast. "Missed."

"Get ready for another try," Stark told her. Pepper reared back, stopped by her proximity tether as Stark halted mid-air. Iron Man stared down the dragon as it swung around for another pass, raised his free arm, and fired. The repulsor blast hit the dragon square in the snout, causing it to freeze and rear up mid-air.

This time, Pepper didn't miss.

The dragon's head separated cleanly from its body after one solid swing and tumbled down through the clouds. Stark and Pepper watched as the rest of the beast glided for a moment before taking a nose-dive after its head. "Well one thing's for sure," Stark joked as he watched the separated parts shrink from their view, "that's the last thing he's ever going to get into head first..."

Stark didn't need the view on his display to know that Pepper was rolling her eyes at him...but the roar of a second dragon and the flapping of giant leathery wings stopped her from reacting to his comment. "One down, two to go," said Pepper. "Shall we?"

The man in the iron suit didn't need to be asked twice.

#

When Steve first saw that his 'uniform' included a shield along with his gun, he had thought, back then, that Stark was out of his mind. If he was supposed to be some super-powerful super-soldier, then what the hell did he need with a shield when all he had to fight off was bullets?

Today, though...today he had never been more grateful for his shield. The fight with the dragon was not going well. His shield, he thought, was supposed to have an edge that was sharp enough to go through steel. He had even used it to chop down trees. More than once.

But every time he attacked the dragon with his shield, it just deflected off of its scales like the things were made of adamantium. Every single time. _What in God's name is that thing made of?_ he wondered. The weight of the sword felt heavy on his back, but he had never used one before, and, well, if his shield couldn't do the job...

The dragon landed in front of Steve on Seventh Avenue, crushing at least a half-dozen abandoned cars from the impact. Steve hurled his shield at the beast, only to watch, helplessly, as the metal deflected off the dragon's chest without making an impact. The dragon, in turn, swatted at its bothersome pest...sending Steve flying into the side of a nearby building before crashing onto the sidewalk. A shot of terror ripped through Steve's shaken system as the dragon's head loomed large over his own. It wasn't hard for him to know what was going to come next. He closed his eyes and tensed up, hoping that the heat of the fire would be intense enough to take him quickly...

Steve frowned as the roar of the fire blasted across his eardrums...but he felt no heat. He opened his eyes and saw flames, but they were at an easy arm's length away. Something, it seemed, was protecting him from the breath of the dragon that was so determined to take his life.

Something, it seemed, that felt very much like a shield.

He propped himself up on his elbows and was looking up in the dragon's direction when the cascading inferno around him suddenly stopped. Steve looked up to find that the dragon's head was now twitching violently from an attack that he could not have caused.

The shield dissipated as the dragon flew away from the new danger it was facing, and once the beast was gone, Steve discovered he was looking at the one face that flashed before his eyes when he thought he was facing his last moments...and, now that the danger had passed, the last face he expected to see in the heat of battle. "Alexis?! What in God's name are you doing here?"

"The spell called me," Alexis replied to Steve's question even as she kept a cautious eye on the skies, watching for the dragon's potential return.

"The spell?"

"That 'experiment' I cast just before you left? It was a protection spell." When Steve's only response was to frown in confusion, Alexis explained, "my plan was that if you ever got into trouble you couldn't get out of on your own, that the spell would let me know you were and shield you until I could get to you."

Steve couldn't resist the joke. "So you could save your damsel in distress?"

It was only then that Alexis allowed herself a small smile. "Someone has to." The smile vanished, though, almost as quickly as it formed. "Heads up, babe. We've got incoming."

The couple looked up and rolled out of the way as the dragon that Alexis had chased off came barreling back down Seventh Avenue breathing fire and gunning for them both. Lightning flew from Alexis' hands, causing the dragon to spasm and twitch above their heads before crashing into the street between them and sending cars flying in its place.

Steve stood at the edge of the crater, looking down at the dragon that Alexis had just defeated. He shook his head and chuckled in amazement. "Honey," Steve tried to joke, "remind me never to get on your bad..."

The joke died off as the dragon woke up with a deafening roar. Steve backed away from the crater, sprinting around to instinctively try to protect his girlfriend. He was so worried about protecting Alexis, in fact, that he almost didn't notice the two lighting-fast swordsmen who jumped into the crater, ran up the back of the incapacitated dragon, and finally ended the creature's life by skewering the beast through the top of its head with their swords.

When the dragon had finally breathed its last, Steve finally recognized the couple who had so quickly jumped in and saved their lives. Recognition, however, did nothing to dampen his surprise at seeing them. "Angel? Phoenix? What are you two doing here?"

"Crusher asked us to come along," replied Fallon, referring to Alexis' 'Network' code name.

"Wizards cannot use their abilities to kill..." chimed in Katya.

Steve gasped as the surprise over Katya's comment hit him full force. "Wizards can't kill?"

Fallon shook his head. "Nope. It's a major part of the legend. The Sìfāng is a shield, not a sword..."

The connection Fallon's explanation make within Steve's mind spurred him on with a new sense of urgency. "Lex...we gotta get to your dad. He went after Lóng zhǔ."

Alexis' face paled with shock. "Alone?!" Steve nodded. "It was his idea, wasn't it?" When Steve nodded again, Alexis' shock turned to anger. "If he doesn't stop doing this, so help me, I'll kill him..."

"But you can't..." Steve countered, remembering what he had just been told.

"I could find a way," grumbled Alexis. "Trust me..."

Fallon watched Steve and Alexis chase off after his shield and her father when the roar of another dragon caught his attention. He pulled his sword out of the head of the dead dragon's corpse as he turned to his fiancée. "Well, Kat? Up for a little more dragon hunting?"

Katya's eyes sparkled as her smile grew wide enough to show her fangs. "Aren't I always?"

#

_Well? Does this make up for the last chapter? I've got one more chapter of battle planned. How's it going so far?_


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: Just wanted to give a quick explanation to the guest who was nice enough to leave a comment on the last chapter. Wizards can't use their abilities to kill. They're the shield for their fellow Guardians, and can protect them (and others) from almost anything, but they can't use their abilities to kill. The other Guardians can use their abilities to kill (Ryan's had to do it, and Beckett's done it several times), and if the wizards wanted to kill someone using good old-fashioned human methods, there's nothing stopping them. But they can't use their abilities to kill for any reason. It's a fail-safe; out of all of the Guardians, the wizards are the ones whose powers could do the most damage if something went wrong or they turned to the 'dark side'. Hope this helps!

Anyway, we now return to dragon hunting, already in progress...

* * *

The God of Thunder ripped through the air at top speed, luring a pair of very angry-looking dragons away from the more population-dense sections of midtown. Thor had faced many dangerous opponents since he had first tasted battle in his youth. Some, like the Chitauri, were blind barreling beasts of rage that were little more than cannonballs on flying chariots; others, though, were smart enough that facing them one-on-one was more than enough of a challenge. And being attacked by two of such an enemy...well that was, indeed, the primary ingredient in a very bad day.

The dragons that were chasing down the God of Thunder were two such enemies.

Thor lifted his hammer over his head, pulling up in hopes that the momentum that the dragons were building up in their flight would cause them to careen right past him. No such luck; the beasts stopped directly underneath his position. A bolt of lightning struck Mjölnir; Thor tried to take advantage by directing the energy through his body to strike the dragons below him. The dragons were stunned by the blast...but they were able to shake off the attack with a speed that left the god frustrated. He took off again, doubling back toward the center of Manhattan. Thor bobbed and wove through the maze of glass and stone buildings, praying that the obstacles in the terrain would be able to at least slow down his pursuers.

The dragons caught on to Thor's plan immediately. They split up: one following Thor through the maze of skyscrapers while the other sped directly down Broadway in the hopes of overtaking the god and cutting off his escape. *That* plan worked; the Broadway dragon caught up to Thor between the towers of Rockefeller Center. The dragons flanked the golden-haired warrior, whose eyes darted around, looking for an escape route as the two giant reptiles each drew in deep breath...

THWACK! BOOM!  
THWACK! BOOM!

The dragons' heads exploded within a split second of each other. Thor scanned the area, trying to get a handle on his surroundings and see if a greater danger was about to come after him. It was then that Thor saw it: the reason that his pursuers were falling from the sky instead of roasting him to a crisp...

Beneath Thor's position, Hawkeye stood alone on the roof of Stark Tower. His bow was strong and steady; an arrow with a glowing blue tip sat drawn on its rest and ready to strike at the next hint of danger. The god and the archer acknowledged each other with a curt nod...then Thor took off to check on the rest of his friends and allies.

#

"You sure this is going to work?" Natasha asked nervously.

Ryan was too focused on running to vocally respond. _Can't be a hundred percent sure,_ he projected into the mind-link, _but they do seem to be drawn more to us than to other people._

_Which is why we're now trying to be dragon bait?_ Natasha asked Ryan in her mind.

_Yeah_, Esposito replied. _Turn left here._

They had been running down a progressively narrowing sequence of streets, hoping that the dragon was so focused on them that he wouldn't notice his shrinking surroundings. Ryan jumped onto a nearby fire escape, scaling the steel railing until he reached the top of the building. He stopped just long enough to look back and check on the location of their quarry. _Big guy's taken the bait,_ he told his two partners. _He's ground running. Head to the alley._

_Copy that,_ agreed Esposito.

Natasha and Esposito sprinted down the alleyway, stopping only when a ten-story brick building blocked them from going any further. They drew their swords and turned toward the beast that was quickly blocking out the sun with its approach. "Here we go," whispered Natasha.

The dragon stopped at the entrance to the alleyway, letting out a roar of victory when it seemed to assume that its prey was cornered. He crept closer and closer to Natasha and Esposito, looming large over them as he crossed the length of several blocks in a few steps. The dragon reared its head back, preparing to bite down on its 'snack'...

Ryan leapt from the top of the nearby building, plunging his sword into the top of the beast's head, right between its eyes. The dragon collapsed, blocking the alley completely and almost crushing Natasha and Esposito as the head crashed to the ground. Ryan grabbed onto the dragon's ear, using it for leverage as he reached down with his free hand to help Natasha climb atop the beast's lifeless carcass. "Thanks," she told Ryan.

"No problem," said Ryan.

Esposito jumped up to join his partner and the Avenger atop the dragon's body. "We should see how the others are doing," he announced to the group.

Ryan and Natasha were in full agreement. They raced down the dragon's back, turning onto the cross street as they dropped off the tail of the beast. The trio had just gotten their bearings when a roar from the air changed their focus instantly. Natasha looked up to see another dragon bearing down on them at full speed. Natasha held onto her sword with a white-knuckle grip, unsure if she could warn her two 'partners' and get away in time. "Guys..."

Before the three warriors could strike, though, the dragon jerked upward at an awkward angle and yelped out a sound that could only be described as pained. Gravity seemed to pull the beast down by the tail, and it slammed into the ground with an enormous crash. The dragon roared in pain and anger until the Hulk jumped onto its neck, snapping it instantly. Banner then looked at his stunned friends. "You guys ok?"

Ryan nodded. The relief in his face was obvious. "You?"

"Never better," said Banner with a smile. His voice was deeper and boomed through the streets even over the hum of broken power lines and the crackle of the debris fires that were starting to pop up around them. Still, Natasha was starting to recognize the gentle undertone of the voice as unmistakably Banner's.

"How many more of these things *are* there?" asked Esposito, scanning the area as best he could for signs of another incoming attack.

Thor touched down next to the group in the middle of the quiet street. "I believe there is only one more dragon," he told the group.

"Where could it be?" asked Banner. "I've been over most of midtown..."

The god's eyes widened slightly, surprised at how...articulate the Hulk had become. "Doctor Banner?!" he asked, amazed.

Banner's eyes sparkled before turning Thor's attention back to the subject at hand. "Where's the last dragon, Thor?"

Thor opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by two more Avengers coming in from above. "We're down to one last dragon," Stark announced to the group. "It's hiding out in the Hudson."

"So why'd you guys come get us?" asked Esposito. "Don't those suits work underwater?"

Stark and Pepper looked to each other, clearly hesitating even though no one could see their expressions behind their helmets. "You need to come with us," Thor told the group, filling in for what his flying compatriots seemed to be so hesitant to say. "I think we have saved the largest beast for last..."

A nervous knot was beginning to form in Natasha's stomach as she followed Stark and Pepper's airborne lead. ""Just how big are we talking, here?"

#

Moments later, Natasha had the answer to her question. "Okay..." she exclaimed, not happy to have the answer to her question, "I can see why you guys called for backup..."

Esposito was in full agreement. "Jesus...it's like a dragon Godzilla..."

"Considering how those battles usually went," Ryan suggested, "Godzilla's probably not the best monster to compare this to."

"So how do you guys want to play this?" asked Natasha.

"We can't do much while he's underwater," said Esposito. "So we need to get his attention..." A shock of energy took care of that problem quickly, as Thor directed a bolt of lightning toward the water.

The roar that erupted from the river shook the ground underneath the heroes' feet. Everyone watched in awe as the giant red-scaled dragon rose up out of the water, roaring with a mixture of pain and fury. "We need to incapacitate it," Stark announced to the group. He targeted the beast's vulnerable head and neck areas with the repulsor beams, hoping to at least create enough of an electrical shock that it would disrupt the creature's nervous system.

No such luck; the bolts deflected "Thor, what about your lightning?" Stark asked the god.

Thor shook his head. "I hit him with all the power I could find," he insisted. "All it did was get his attention."

"Maybe if we all hit him at once?" suggested Pepper.

"Worth a shot," shrugged Stark. "On three. One...two...three."

The repulsor beams from Stark and Pepper's suits were just as useless as they had been on the first attempt, deflecting harmlessly into the waters of the river. Thor hit the dragon with a steady stream of lightning energy...which was soon joined by a second bolt of energy from a separate source.

Ryan looked around, carefully scanning the area for the second source of lighting...and almost sighed with relief when he saw Alexis and Steve at the end of an adjacent pier. He opened a wide connection with his foster kid sister and poured energy through it, allowing Alexis to amp up the voltage of her energy bolts until the dragon was able to do nothing but spasm and twitch from the sheer force of the young wizard's attack. _Lex_, Ryan projected into the mind-link, _you have *no* idea how good it is to see you..._

Alexis chuckled, even though Steve was the only one who could hear it. _Oh, I think I have an idea_, she teased Ryan as she considered the size of the dragon she was electrocuting. _How much more do you think this big guy can take?_

Ryan reached out to read the dragon's mind...and found only the barest of sentient activity. _He's done. I think you can pull back now._

Every member of the group seemed to visibly relax as Alexis ended her attack and the dragon collapsed on the pier. Every member of the group...save one. "Wait!" He's not dead!" Steve called out quickly, making sure his fellow Avengers were warned of the still-imminent danger. "Someone's got to cut the head off!"

Banner was in no mood to be surprised by another ambush dragon attack. "Somebody gimme a sword," he growled. Ryan tossed his sword to the Hulk. Banner jumped into the water, causing a splash that Natasha, Ryan and Esposito had to sprint to get away from. He used the pointy scales along the spine of the unconsicous beast to climb up to the dragon's neck, speared the beast between his scales at what Banner hoped was the base of its spine, then used his massive bulk to pull through as much of the neck as the sword could penetrate.

Even with the Hulk's profoundly superhuman strength, it still took Banner several long hacks with the proportionally tiny blade before there was a clear separation between the dragon's head and neck. The entire process left the Hulk covered in blood...enough so that Banner had to wipe the excess coagulating liquid and stray tissue away from his face as the lifeless beast's carcass sank to the depths of the river. "I hope he's dead *now*," Banner insisted.

"One thing's for sure," Esposito commented quietly, "it's going to be a hell of a long time before I come back to Chelsea Piers again."

It was only then that Ryan realized where they were. "Can't argue that, man," he agreed. "Can't argue that..."

"Who's she?" asked Natasha, pointing over to the adjacent pier.

Stark answered Natasha's question as he and Pepper landed on the pier next to their friends and allies. "That's Castle's daughter."

Natasha raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Really? Guess she's a chip off the old magic wand, huh?" The surprise grew, though, when she noticed exactly *how* Steve was looking at Alexis. "Are they...?"

Stark nodded, his expression smiling and full of mischief. "For a while, apparently."

Natasha's chance to ask Stark more questions was cut short when Alexis and Steve teleported to the pier that the other were resting on. And she looked none too happy to be there. "Guys," Alexis demanded, "where's my father?"

"Empire State Building," Esposito replied. "He went after..."

Ryan and Esposito simultaneously replayed the death of the last dragon in their minds, and immediately recognized the mistake they had made. "God Alexis," Ryan exclaimed, "I'm so sorry, I completely forgot..."

"Forgot *what*?!" exclaimed Natasha, thoroughly confused.

"Wizards can't use their powers to kill," Steve exclaimed, rubbing his girlfriend's shoulders in a show of support. "Ever."

Pepper's eyes flew open, shocked as she was by the news. "So no matter how much he does to Lóng zhǔ, Lóng zhǔ won't die?" Steve, Alexis, Ryan and Esposito all shook their heads.

Steve knew immediately what needed to happen next. "We need to get to the Empire State Building," he insisted, slapping Iron Man's mask down over his face. "Now."

#

_Favorites and follows are the food that plot bunnies survive on. Comments are the Miracle Gro that plot bunnies *thrive* on. So please, all comments, questions, criticisms and snide remarks are very much encouraged!_


	15. Chapter 15

"Sometimes I really wish *I* was the wizard," Beckett grumbled as she scanned the area, looking for signs of her partner. She reached deep into her soul, through the link that she shared with her fiancé, and found...nothing. Nothing but static, like the sound of rushing wind...

He was shutting her out.  
Even with the most transcendental of powers binding them together for all eternity, somehow, Richard Castle had found a way to shut her out.

_Rick better hope the Dragon Master kills him, _Beckett thought angrily, _because if he doesn't, then I just might..._She deliberately forced herself to set such thoughts aside. "Okay," Beckett announced to no one in particular, "back to plan A..." She opened up her hearing as far as she dared, forcing herself to filter out the sounds of panic and of her friends fighting off the dragons attacking the city around her...

It was then that she finally heard it. _Wow_, she thought as she looked high above her position in Herald Square, _guess that wasn't static after all._..She sprinted toward Fifth Avenue at top speed, reaching the Empire State Building in a matter of moments.

Even in the midst of the chaos of evacuating a large office building and tourist attraction, a couple of on-duty uniforms still picked up on the fact that Beckett was headed in the opposite direction from the mass of people running away from the building. "Ma'am," one of the officers insisted, "you can't go back in the building. It's too dangerous..."

Beckett interrupted the eager young rookie by flashing her own badge. "I'm Detective..." She cut herself off, recognizing that she had to correct her old familiar greeting to reflect her new reality. "*Agent* Kate Beckett, Homeland Security. What do we got?"

The officer's older partner suddenly looked like he had gotten the wind knocked out of him as he recognized Beckett's name, connecting it instantly to the rumors that had been floating around his precinct for the better part of a year. "You..." he stammered out nervously, "you're one of *them*, aren't you?"

Beckett ignored the question, choosing instead to focus on the current crisis as she closed the badge wallet in her hands. "What do we got?" she repeated.

The older officer took over the conversation. "Someone's taken over the upper observation deck."

"Hostages?"

"About a dozen," the rookie chimed in. "He released them about ten minutes after he got up there."

"SWAT's in the stairwell," added the older uniform. "Apparently the perp has found some way to block them from getting up there."

Beckett tucked her badge back in her pocket. She pressed on, wanting to make sure that the potential for people to get caught in the crossfire was as small as possible. "How's the evacuation going?"

"The people down here are the last ones in the building," replied the rookie. "Everyone else is out..."

"Except your people?" countered Beckett. The rookie nodded. "What about snipers? A chopper?"

The older uniform hesitated. "Apparently, there's some sort of...wind condition...that's keeping them from setting up outside the building."

Beckett couldn't help her smile, knowing exactly what that 'wind condition' was...and who was causing it. "Tell the on-site commander to get your people out," she ordered the uniforms. "We'll take it from here."

The rookie gawked at Beckett in disbelief. "*We*?! Agent Beckett..."

The older uniform cut his partner off before the rookie could say something he would later regret. "Yes ma'am," he consented to the order as he gently nudged his partner away from their post. "C'mon, kid, let's go talk to the cap."

The rookie's disbelief transferred immediately from Beckett to his partner. "Thompson?" he exclaimed. "You mean we're just going to take her at her..."

Thompson's eyes followed his partner's as the rookie turned around to point at Beckett...and there was no one behind him. The two cops jogged over to the half-open stairwell door and pushed through it.

"No way..." the rookie exclaimed as he looked up the center of the stairwell. "How the hell could she have climbed ten flights of stairs already? We were only talking to her a minute ago..."

The elder cop simply shook his head and chuckled as he watched Beckett sprint past the sign for the twelfth floor. "So the Guardians really are as powerful as people have been saying..."

"Guardians?" asked the rookie, clearly unfamiliar with the reference.

Thompson opened the door to the stairwell to allow his partner to go through it. "You never heard the stories, kid? C'mon. Let's start with the one about the almost zombie apocalypse..."

#

Richard Castle was absolutely *terrible* at multitasking.

Part of the beauty of being a novelist was that he could procrastinate to his heart's content, then, when he had a deadline, he could shut out the world, focus with laser-sharp intensity on what he needed to do, and then push until he got the work done...and people simply chalked it up to the eccentricities of being an artist. Even when he was 'blessed' as a Guardian, he had rarely had to focus on more than one spell at a time. _Granted_, he mused, _occasionally I've had to focus on a lot of spells in rapid succession, but still..._

The wizard started to slowly descend from his place in the sky as his mind started to wander. _C'mon, Rick,_ he chastised himself, forcing his attention back to his current challenge. _Focus_. The need to stay on a horizontal level with Lóng zhǔ was making this battle far more complicated than any that Castle had faced before: every time he took a shot at the Dragon Master's shield, the funnel cloud would start to dissipate, dropping him below the level where he could get a clear shot. But when Castle re-focused to push the funnel above the observation deck so that he could take a shot, it also gave Lóng zhǔ a clearer shot at *him*.

The Dragon Master seemed to be enjoying his opponent's juggling act. "What seems to be the matter, Sìfāng?" teased Lóng zhǔ. "Can you not handle two spells at once?"

Castle turned up the intensity of the funnel cloud until he was several feet over the head of his opponent. He then switched gears and shot a ball of energy at Lóng zhǔ's shield before returning his focus to maintaining his balance. "Oh, I'm doing just fine over here," Castle countered, trying to keep his tone light and mocking. "How about you?"

Lóng zhǔ was rapidly losing all interest in games. He fed more power into his shield before throwing an energy ball through the shield at his opponent. The Sìfāng had all of the power that the Dragon Master remembered from their last meeting, but Lóng zhǔ couldn't help but notice that the wizard on the other side of the shield was operating with a finesse that he had not thought the other being to be capable of. Worse, the shield was requiring more and more of his attention.

Which meant that his children were losing the war.  
And soon...so would he.

Castle turned his head as a vicious, earth-shaking roar attracted his attention...which was enough of a distraction that Lóng zhǔ's energy ball hit him full force. The impact was so powerful that it sent Castle flying back onto the roof of a nearby building, where his head landed with a sickening thud.

Lóng zhǔ let out a dragon's roar of his own, overcome with joy as he let down his shields. _Surely the Sìfāng is, finally, dead..._

It was then that he saw it. Lóng zhǔ watched in stunned amazement as his enemy...his adversary...the one man who should not, *could* not possibly have been capable of standing and surviving his attack...

Did just that.

Castle commanded the winds to swirl around him once more, lifting him back in the air while Lóng zhǔ watched in speechless amazement.

It was all the distraction that Beckett needed. She burst through the door and tackled Lóng zhǔ to the ground, forcibly pulling his hands behind his back and securing them with the handcuffs that she still carried...before knocking the wizard unconscious.

Castle was by her side in an instant. "Kate!" she exclaimed. "Are you all right?"

Beckett let out a quiet grunt as she got up from kneeling over Lóng zhǔ. "I'm fine, Castle," she replied. "But what the hell were you thinking?!" Castle's confused expression only angered Beckett further. "The legend?" she asked him, trying to jog his memory while keeping her own anger in check. "You can't use your powers to kill..."

Castle finally blushed, and Beckett could feel her fiancé's shock and embarrassment through their re-established bond-link. "I..." he stammered out, trying and failing to find an excuse in the wake of the anger, fear and anxiety he felt wash over him.

Her fiancé's contrite attitude calmed Beckett's anger somewhat. "Castle," she sighed, "I don't have any problems with you wanting to be the one to go after the bad guys. But next time, make sure you have backup...okay?"

Castle chuckled, remembering how many times he had wanted to insist that Beckett do the same thing that she had just asked of him. "Deal," he agreed.

Beckett then knelt down next to the unconscious form of the Dragon Master. "Okay," she instructed Castle, "then let's get this North Star and get it to the rest of the gang..."

The couple started to carefully pat down Lóng zhǔ, looking for anything that the wizard might have on his person. Castle cursed in frustration moments later. "It's not here. He's clean. How the hell is he clean?!"

"Loki must have it," mused Beckett.

Castle ran a hand through his hair, trying and failing to make the proper connections between his thoughts and his memories. "It's possible," he agreed, "but then wouldn't that mean that it was at the bottom of the East River? Loki couldn't have survived that shot Banner took at him...could he?"

"Probably not," Beckett reluctantly agreed as she patted down Lóng zhǔ a second time. The Dragon Master groaned as he slowly started to regain consciousness...before Beckett hit him a second time and sent him into the darkness once more. "At least, I really hope not..."

#

Loki, the legendary Norse god of mischief, 'brother' to Thor, honored foster son to the Allfather himself...Loki slowly dragged himself up onto the shores of Roosevelt Island by his fingertips. He curled over onto his side, coughing up what felt like an entire ocean's worth of river water before venting his frustrations with a loud, angry scream.

He felt humiliated. Again. By that...beast. The beast who had tossed him around like a child's rag doll when they met in the throne room of the metal man's tower. He had almost expected it the first time; after all, the thing he had most appreciated about the great beast was its vast reserves of power. But the man...the *man* had also defeated him. The man Loki had *thought* was simply the disguise for the more powerful beast underneath. Somehow, some way...the man had found a way to tap into the power of the beast. _If I could just tap into that power,_ thought Loki, _tap into that power and bend it to be under *my* control..._

Those daydreams of the power that lay just out of reach of Loki's control quickly pushed the god's thoughts back to the power that was now *in* his control. The power that, he realized, must have just kept him alive to dream of victories to come. He reached into the inside pocket of his vest, taking out the North Star and kissing the smooth side of the unassuming rock with gentle tenderness. "Thank the gods for you," he murmured to the seemingly docile-looking object, grateful for the fleeting thought that picked the pocket of his 'ally' just before the man-beast had sent him flying into the air. Loki felt the power buzzing through the rock as he caressed the area he had just kissed. A wave of that energy washed over him, cascading quickly from the top of his head through the soles of his feet and taking any traces of injury, soreness, stiffness and fatigue out of his body with it.

Loki closed his hand over the stone, drawing in a deep breath and letting it out slowly as he focused on the feel of the power coursing through the tiny talisman. Another rush of energy filled his being, making him feel more powerful than he could have ever dreamed. "Ahh..." Loki groaned with relief as he stood up, "I could *really* get used to this..." He dried himself off and cleaned himself up with a flash of a thought, amazed at how easily the simple spells worked.

The god resisted the urge to laugh, overcome with the giddiness that came with the seemingly bottomless well of pure power that he now had the opportunity to draw from. He turned his attention to the city of glass, metal and stone on the other side of the river, and remembered what his 'ally' had told him about the talisman that was now in his possession. "So," he sighed, fingering the stone in his hand, "you can make me an army. An army of limitless power...and under my control...sounds like a good idea to me."

Loki took a second look at his surroundings. "However," he explained to no one in particular, "even this much power will probably be dampened by all of this water. Now, how can we solve this problem..." The god looked up and smiled, recognizing that the red flying carriage with the words 'Roosevelt Island' emblazoned on its side was the ideal solution. "Perfect..." he purred.

He found himself atop the carriage with a thought. The carriage was switching junctions, and Loki realized that he was not going to have much time to work within the open space around him. He lifted his scepter into the air with one hand and held the North Star in the air with his other hand. "Great warriors," Loki called out, his voice booming with a power that he knew was not coming from him, "your time has come. Embrace your power and come. Follow me to victory!"

The energy of the North Star left Loki in a giant explosion of pure magical power that sent him collapsing to the roof of the tram beneath his feet, barely able to hang on as the carriage swayed precipitously from the kinetic force that had just been expelled atop it. The god of mischief smiled as his energy reserves re-filled rapidly. _Certainly a spell with that much power behind it *must* have worked_, he thought gleefully. His mind raced with the thoughts of how quickly his army would be able to bring this world to heel and leave it under *his* control. "Come, my soldiers," he growled to no one in particular as the tram entered the station, "let our first victory begin..."

* * *

**A/N**: Won't be long now, folks...:-) I have the rest of this story outlined, and it should be (probably) 2-3 more chapters. After that, I have a dilemma I could use your help with. I have a couple of good solid story ideas in my head and I would love to hear which one you guys would like me to write first. The first one is the futurefic I've already told you guys about: the adventures of Joanna Marie Castle-Underhill, a 12 year old 4th-generation descendent of the Guardians.

The second one would be in the 'current era' timeline, and it would be another crossover. I've recently discovered some fanfic for a favorite literary series of mine, and it would be a perfect crossover for this AU...especially since it would give Castle a much-needed and long-overdue mentor. No, not *that* wizard named Harry...the other one. The Chicago-based one. It would be a crossover with "The Dresden Files" and told first-person in the style of that awesome series.

So what I want to know is which story would you like to hear first. Let me know in the comments. And, "I have no preference, I'll read whatever you want to write" is a *perfectly* acceptable answer. As are any comments you have about the current story. ;-)


	16. Chapter 16

"So," Beckett asked Castle with a weary sigh, "what should we do with him?"

Castle looked down at the unconscious form of Lóng zhǔ that his fiancée was sitting on. "I don't know," he shrugged. "If he wakes up he's going to start trouble again. And I doubt that handcuffs are going to hold him for long."

The observation deck area around them suddenly got very crowded as their fellow Guardians and some of the Avengers caught up to them...along with one other person. "Alexis?" Castle exclaimed in disbelief, "what are you doing..."

"Ste...Cap needed backup," Alexis replied, remembering at the last second to stick to her boyfriend's 'superhero' title. "And then he told me where you were."

Castle blushed as he withered under his daughter's warning, worried glare. "I'm sorry," he relented. "When we heard the dragons my head just went back to the first time we fought them. I didn't think."

Alexis relaxed when she realized how sincere her father's apology was. It allowed her to turn her attention to the figure on the ground. "Is that Lóng zhǔ?" Castle and Beckett both nodded, and Alexis swallowed hard. "Is he...?"

"Unconscious," Beckett replied immediately, and Alexis sighed with relief.

The rest of the group, though, frowned in confusion. "He's not dead?" asked Esposito in disbelief.

"Nope," replied Beckett.

"So what are we going to do when he wakes up?" asked Steve.

Beckett punched the seemingly unconscious wizard, making sure that the moment happened later rather than sooner. "His heart rate changed," she then explained to the confused-looking group. "And we need time to come up with a plan."

"Anyone got any ideas?" asked Castle. "'Cause I got nothin'..."

"Does he have the talisman?" asked Thor, bringing the group back to their original quest. Beckett shook her head. It was the last thing that Thor wanted to hear. "That means my brother has it."

"And things just got a lot more dangerous," agreed Steve.

On that point, every member of the group was in full agreement. "We need to find Loki," declared Esposito.

"But what about Lóng zhǔ?" countered Ryan. "He wakes up, we're back at square one."

"Maybe not," said Alexis.

That got the group's attention. "What do you mean?" asked Steve.

Alexis turned to her father. "Dad...can we adjust your shield so that it goes both ways?"

Castle caught on immediately. "So that Lóng zhǔ can't cast spells while he's shielded?" Alexis nodded. Castle smiled as his agile mind came up with the perfect spell. He turned his attention on his fellow wizard with a laser-sharp focus. "Kate, back away," Castle warned his fiancée. "I don't want anyone else to get caught in this."

"Okay..." Beckett agreed warily. The entire group started to back away from Castle as best they could in the small space.

"Ryan," Castle asked his fellow Guardian, "can you pick him up? Get him standing on his feet...ish?" Ryan nodded, and the unconscious wizard started to slowly float in the air, rotating him to a vertical position.

Castle closed his eyes, walking through the full process of the spell in his mind so that his intent left no outs for his adversary. When he opened his eyes, Beckett noticed that they were glowing with a faint magical blue around the edges. "Be separate, Dragon Master," Castle declared. "from this point forward you will be powerless to harm any being other than yourself. You will be bound to the spot on which you now stand. And in this prison you shall remain until another is found to replace it."

A tight column of blue energy formed around the wizard's body as he regained consciousness. It didn't take long for him to recognize where he was. Lóng zhǔ face paled, then flushed with rage as he saw who was standing, healthy and whole, directly across from him. "Why aren't you *dead*?" he seethed.

"I'm hard to kill," Castle teased. He stood, smiling, in front of his opponent...pleased with how much his very presence was infuriating his adversary. "Wanna try again?"

The small amount of taunting was far more than Lóng zhǔ's wounded pride could stand. He pushed all of his energy into creating a white-hot fireball, then launched it at Castle...

Alexis clasped her hands tightly over her mouth as the fireball left the Dragon Master's hand, only to boomerang around the observation deck, hit the wizard squarely in the face and knock Lóng zhǔ back into a standing state of unconsciousness. "That fireball was supposed to hit you, wasn't it?"

"Guess so," Castle shrugged.

Alexis blew a low whistle, impressed by the success of her father's spell. "Nicely done, dad..."

"So the spell worked?" asked Steve.

Castle nodded. "He won't be going anywhere. And if he tries to use his powers to hurt anyone..."

Ryan completed his teammate's sentence. "He'll only end up hurting himself."

Stark and Pepper flew into the group's discussion, landing with a roar of repulsor beams that forced Beckett to cover her ears. "We got trouble," Stark announced to the group. "Loki has the North Star..."

"Yeah," agreed Castle, "we just figured that out..."

Pepper cut Castle of quickly. "It's worse than that," she declared. "We think he may have *used* it."

"For what?" asked Alexis.

Stark and Pepper looked to each other as if trying to find the words to explain what they had seen. A brief moment passed before they quickly gave up. "Meet us at ground level," said Stark. "You need to see this for yourself."

#

Herald Square was a madhouse. Hundreds of people were curled up in fetal positions on the ground, taking up almost every available inch of sidewalk space. Those who were still mobile wandered into the street, stumbling aimlessly between the endless parking lot of abandoned cars now littering the intersection of Broadway and 34th Street.

Martha Rodgers should have been worried about the people around her. She should have been worrying about the safety of her son and his friends. She should have been worrying about her own safety in such a chaotic situation. But she just couldn't. Her focus was consumed entirely by the suffering of the man in front of her. "Richard? What is it? What are you feeling? Please, God, Richard, tell me what's going on..."

The man some knew as Jackson Hunt forced himself to speak through the pain. He clutched his temples, leaning against the nearby car to hold him up. "My head, Martha...God...hurts so much..."

Martha tilted her head back toward the thunder and lightining 'storm' they had been following atop the nearby Empire State Building. Seeing the relative peace gave her some seed of confidence, since she knew, in the depths of her soul, that her son was probably okay. But a quick look at the multitudes that were sharing in her beloved's pain also made it clear that while her son was safe, the danger he was fighting was still waging war against her city. And somehow, her old love was now caught in the middle of it. "Is it *just* your head that's hurting?" asked Martha, trying to get a better handle on the situation.

Hunt stared at Martha for a moment, confused, before the pain took over all rational thought. He collapsed to the ground as pain shot through every cell in his body. Martha's face drained of color. "Richard?" she gasped out in a panic. "Richard, please, darling, talk to me!"

Jackson Hunt didn't respond to Martha's pleas. No one did. The street fell deathly silent as every single person who had been screaming stopped and stood up. Including Jackson Hunt.

Martha watched the proceedings with a growing sense of dread. It was starting to feel like she had been sucked into an old horror movie from the 1960s. "Richard?" she gulped out weakly, hoping against hope for a response. "Can you hear me?"

The only response she got was a blue light that flashed in the eyes of Jackson Hunt before she was electrocuted.

#

Ryan walked down 34th Street nervously, keeping his mind open for any sign of the danger that Stark and Pepper had warned them about. "I don't get it," he shrugged. "Where's the fire?"

"Beckett?" asked Castle. "Anything?"

"No," said Beckett, shaking her head. "There's nothing. I can't hear anything for blocks."

"In the middle of New York City?" commented Steve. A chill ran down the spine of Captain America. "That can't be good."

On that point the group was in full agreement. Beckett then noticed the first body that they had seen since leaving the observation deck...and it was collapsed on the ground. "Martha..." she whispered, taking off at a sprint as soon as she recognized the older woman.

Castle's eyes widened as he watched Beckett run off while he was still processing what she had said. "Mother?" he exclaimed, the shock of the idea making him sound like the wind had been knocked out of his soul. In the next instant he was at the woman's side...and Castle, indeed, recognized her immediately.

He brought Lanie to his side with a thought. The healer shook off the disorientation the instant she saw the look of despair on her friend's face...and who he was cradling in his arms. She took Martha's hand into her own, grateful to feel that it was still warm. "Thank God for small favors," she commented before slipping into her healing trance as the rest of the group caught up to them.

Martha woke up with a groan as Lanie disengaged from the healing trance...and the group finally started to understand what was happening. Alexis was the first one to verbalize the question that was going through everyone's minds. "Gram," she asked, "what happened?"

The older woman opened her mouth to speak...but then closed it when no sound came out. Scanning the faces in front of her, Martha grabbed Esposito's hand, her eyes silently asking the Warrior Prophet to speak for her. "Your dad had taken your mom shopping, Castle," he told the group, "trying to keep her distracted from worrying about you too much. There was a tremor..."

"Like an earthquake?" asked Ryan.

Esposito shook his head. "No. It was a *single* tremor, like an explosion, but without the boom. But after the tremor, your dad...he collapsed. About half the people in the square did."

"What happened to them?" asked Beckett.

"The ones who didn't collapse ran off to get help for the ones who collapsed," replied Esposito, "but your mom didn't want to leave your dad. After a couple of minutes everyone on the ground got up at the same time..." The Prophet shuddered. "It looked like something out of 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'. But then..."

Castle noticed the cloud that settled over his friend's expression as his voice trailed off. "What is it, Javi?"

Esposito forced himself to look his friend straight in the eye. "Your dad...he electrocuted your mom, Castle. He's under Loki's control. They all are." The Guardian's next words were no longer being directed at Castle...or any other being in the area. "Raja!"

The spirit of a Bengal tiger appeared before him, although only the five Guardians could see it. _My Lord,_ the tiger's voice echoed in his mind in greeting, _how may I serve?_

"We need an army," Esposito instructed the spirit. "As many as you can find. Our enemy has given his army abilites that are like ours, so they'll need to be able to fight...us."

_As you wish, my Lord, _the tiger replied before exploding into a thousand orange balls of light.

The spirit of a Siberian tiger then appeared in his brother's place. _My Lord,_ he echoed his brother's greeting, _how may I serve?_

Esposito looked at the Siberian tiger quizzically before he was stopped by his partner's hand on his shoulder. "It's okay," said Ryan, "I called him." Ryan then turned his attention to the tiger spirit. _Our enemy has an army under his control_, Ryan projected to the spirit, _and I was wondering, if you can break Raja's control over our army..._

_Can I break the hold that your enemy has over his army? _the tiger asked in response. Ryan nodded. _I am unsure, my Lord. But I will, as you would say, give it my best shot..._

Ryan nodded briefly in acknowledgement. _Thank you._ The tiger nodded in return before he disappeared.

Steve stared at his two friends, clearly confused. "What are you guys doing?" he asked.

"Calling for backup," Esposito replied. He turned his attention to Beckett and Castle. "Any ideas as to how to track down Loki?"

Castle shook his head. Beckett, however, looked to the skies. "Stark!" she called out as loudly as she could. "Stark! I need you!"

The man in the red and gold suit hovered a few feet above their heads. "You called, Agent Beckett?"

"Did you guys see which way Loki went?" asked Beckett. "Apparently he took half the city with him."

"North," Stark replied, "toward the park."

Castle had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. "Again?! What is it with Central Park and crazy people..."

Beckett chuckled, understanding the sentiment immediately. "Take your mom home, Rick. I'll let you know when we find Loki."

Castle smiled, sneaking in one last chance to kiss his fiancée. "Be careful."

"Always," agreed Beckett, returning the smile as Castle vanished from her sight. She then turned her eyes back to the skies. "Take me up with you, Stark. I can find him, but I need to see the bigger picture."

Metal arms wrapped around Beckett's waist, and she was lifted into the air without a word. Beckett scanned the skies, looking for any sign of Loki and his followers. The faint blue glow of magic in the distance was what finally drew her eyes to the god's location. "Got 'em," she announced to Stark. "He's not in Central Park."

Stark and Pepper turned their gazes northward, surprised to find Central Park as empty as Herald Square had been. "Where?" asked Stark.

The nervous edge in Beckett's voice was unmistakable. "The George Washington Bridge," she replied after swallowing hard. "I think he's trying to get his army off the island."

_Then we need to make sure that doesn't happen, _Castle's mind-voice declared in Beckett's thoughts.

They were gone less than a second later.

#

Loki smiled as he gazed across the bridge to the wide expanse of land on the other side. _These...humans have no idea what's coming for them, _he thought. The god of mischief fingered the engraving on the stone in his pocket, laughter bubbling up to the surface as another wave of power flowed through his body. That power alone would have easily been enough, he knew, to make these puny humans bow before him once and for all, but the power combined with the army that was now at his disposal...Loki had to deliberately set aside thoughts of how easy and satisfying it was going to be to overthrow his brother and rule not just one world, but two.

_One planet at a time, after all..._

A blockade of stopped traffic impeded the god's presence, cars littering the roadway as far as Loki's eyes could see. He lifted his arms high over his head and spread them open slowly, the cars moving out of his way to create the path that his mind's eye had envisioned...

Except small group of humans that were blocking that path...at least, *mostly* humans. And the flash of light bouncing off the metal of a certain hammer left Loki with no doubt as to who was in the group that was standing before him. "Well, well, 'brother'," he called out mockingly. "I see you've brought more friends with you this time."

Thor's response was all business. "Give us the talisman, brother. Let us end this nonsense and go home."

Loki raised his eyebrows slightly in surprise, clearly mocking Thor's demand. "Home? Don't you mean going back to the hole where I will be imprisoned for the rest of my days? Thank you, but no, 'brother'. I would much rather *rule* here."

"That's not going to happen, Loki," Captain America countered matter-of-factly. "Not as long as we're around to stop you."

Loki replied with a mocking smile. "Really?" he teased. "You and what army?"

"This one."

Castle didn't have to look behind him to immediately recognize the voice that had just announced its presence. "Took your time getting here, Fallon," he told his 'boss' with a smirk.

Eyes glowing a fiery orange, Fallon's reply was was not his own. _Forgive me, my Lords, _the tiger spirit replied, its voice echoing through the wizard's mind. _It took longer than I had anticipated to find someone who could be blessed with the gift of teleportation._

Loki carefully schooled his expression to maintain a mask of continued arrogance even as a nervous knot began to form in the pit of his stomach. Clearly, he had once again underestimated his brother's choice of allies. "Well then," Loki announced to his adversaries, "let's see how your army handles...this."

Screams roared through the air as every car on the bridge flew at the same time. Stark, Pepper and Banner all scanned the sky in a flash, trying to quickly calculate how many cars they could catch and how many of lives they could save before the hundred or so cars hit the ground. Dread and anger consumed Steve as he quickly realized that there was no way they could catch them all...

*FLASH*

The cars froze in mid-air. Slowly, each vehicle returned to the bridge in a gentle wave that flowed from the Guardians and ended with the last car landing directly in front of Loki. Castle and Ryan smiled, thoroughly satisfied with the the success of their combined efforts. "Is that all you got?!" Ryan teased. "I mean, really, do you think *that's* going to impress anybody? That doesn't even impress a New Yorker..."

Castle, for his part, was too preoccupied to taunt his opponent. "Loki has enough weapons," the Guardian muttered under his breath, "everybody else needs to go home."

The cars and their passengers vanished as the wizard's 'wish' sent them all home. Loki's face flushed with rage. Every cell in his body, every neuron firing in his brain, every fiber of his being was possessed by only one word.

"Attack."

Loki's army followed their master's command without a thought. Most of the army took off at a full sprint across the bridge. The tiger's army took off with matching speed and a roar that thundered even over the noise of thousands of people crossing the bridge.

The Guardians and Avengers fought their way through the battle zone, helping where they could, but keeping their focus entirely on one man. _Anyone got a read on Loki? _Esposito projected into the group mind-link between punches.

Beckett, ever the hunter, had never taken her focus away from her prey. _He's on the Jersey side of the bridge,_ she told the group, _and Castle...he's got your dad with him._

Banner, for his part, had stayed out of the battle...afraid that the Hulk's massive physical force would take out the bridge and everyone on it. But the possibility of Loki escaping in the heat of battle was one that the Avenger knew he couldn't allow. _Castle, can you reinforce the bridge? He's not going to get away if I can help it..._

Castle put a hand down on the New York side of the bridge and whispered a quick spell. _Done_.

_Go get 'em, Bruce_, agreed Natasha.

The Hulk smiled, then took off at a top speed sprint across the bridge, barreling through anyone from either side who was unlucky enough to get in his way. Banner had gotten up enough speed that he might have actually run over Loki...

Were it not for the wall of energy that Jackson Hunt put in his path. Banner hit the invisible wall head-on, and the full force of the blast instantly knocked him out, causing the Hulk to collapse on the bridge with a massive crash.

Pepper had a clear view of the accident from her airborne vantage point. _Castle_, she thought, praying that the wizard could hear her, _Banner's down. He needs your help._

_On it, _Castle's reply echoed through her mind. He teleported to the Jersey side of the bridge, away from the battle...and, he hoped, far enough away that he could head Loki off at the pass.

Sure enough, he spotted Loki less than a second later, stopping the sorcerer and getting his attention with a spell that stopped him in place. "Going somewhere, Loki?" asked Castle.

Loki broke the spell with a thought and acknowledged his true opponent for the first time. "I must admit, you have impressed me, sir." As Castle nodded in deference to the compliment, Loki continued, "I thought this was a world without magic..."

"You thought wrong," Castle replied simply.

"Indeed," agreed Loki. His hand reached into a pocket within his cloak and rubbed the stone enclosed within as his thoughts called for his mage-lieutenant. "I suppose," Loki began, attempting to stall for time, "that you think you're powerful enough to defeat *anyone* with your magic."

Castle only responded with a simple nod.

"Even a *god*?" insisted Loki.

"We've done it before," said Castle.

While not the answer that Loki was expecting, the god of mischief kept his expression carefully controlled as he watched his lieutenant approach Castle from behind. "Really?" Loki asked, trying to act impressed by Castle's declaration, "you've...battled gods before?"

Castle stumbled forward as an energy ball hit his shielded back. He turned around to find his father behind him with another energy ball in his hands, eyes blazing with the fiery blue energy that showed he was under Loki's control. Castle doubled his shields to brace for a second attack as he considered his options. It was clear that the North Star had flipped Jackson Hunt, but could he really launch an attack against his own father?

It wasn't long before Loki made Castle's decision for him. "Kill him," he told Hunt, assuming that would be the end of it.

Hunt fed the energy ball to the size of a white-hot basketball before launching it at his son. The ball deflected harmlessly off of Castle's shield...then Hunt staggered back, doubling over with convulsions. A white ball of energy hovered around him, and Hunt recoiled from it, apparently attempting to fight its influence. Castle took advantage of the opportunity and flung his own energy ball at Loki to break his concentration and, hopefully, his control. Loki caught the energy ball, flinging it back at its creator. The ball deflected off of Castle's shield, taking out a nearby toll booth. Loki switched to pure blasts of energy, sending lightning bolts flying from his fingertips...

...where they were absorbed, harmlessly, into the wall of energy that was being channelled through Jackson Hunt. Loki stared open-mouthed at Hunt, astonished by his disobedience. "What the bloody hell are you doing?" he exclaimed, pulling the talisman from his coat pocket to refresh the weakening spell.

Hunt's response was quiet, simple, and spoken through clenched teeth. "Protecting...my...son."

The shield exploded with a boom, sending Loki flying through the air...and the North Star flying out of his hand in the opposite direction. Hunt caught the talisman, feeling a rush of power flow through him as he turned the stone around in his hands. "Rick?" he asked.

"Yeah?" asked Castle in reply.

Hunt sighed, knowing what he needed to do. "This is the North Star."

Castle shrugged in response. "I don't know, I've never actually seen it..."

"No," Hunt cut off his son's reply. "That wasn't a question, Rick. This *is* the North Star. I can feel it. Do you know how to get rid of it?" When Castle nodded, Hunt tossed him the stone. "Then do it before I change my mind."

Thor and Esposito appeared in front of Castle and Hunt a moment later. Castle tossed the stone to Esposito, who felt the power as soon as he caught it. "So this is it, huh?"

Castle nodded. "Yeah."

Esposito looked over to Thor, who handed over his hammer without a word. The Guardian then dropped the stone on the ground and destroyed it in one smooth motion.

A wave of energy rippled out from the point of the stone's destruction, causing Jackson Hunt to double over in pain for the third time that day. Castle watched his father's discomfort with obvious concern. "Are you all right?"

This time, though, the pain was relatively brief. Castle relaxed when he realized that not only were his father's eyes back to normal, he was smiling and his entire expression seemed much more relaxed. "I'm *fine*, Rick," Hunt replied. "For the first time today, I actually feel like...myself."

"You mean..." asked Castle, letting the obvious question trail off to a mere implication.

The implication, though, was one that Hunt caught on to quickly. "If I wished for a cold beer right now I'd still have to walk into a bar to get one," he told his son.

Castle smiled, and helped his father to a standing position. When Hunt found that he had a longneck bottle in his left hand, Castle simply winked at him. "And sometimes, if you want a cold beer, all you've got to do is ask..."

* * *

**A/N: Hi everybody! I'm baaaaack! Sorry it took me so long to post. My job isn't one of feast or famine. It's *binge* or famine. Either I have very little to do when it comes to work or I have so much to do that I can do nothing *but* work. And right now work is in full-on binge mode. So updates may be frustratingly infrequent. Sorry. :(**

**About the note from the last chapter, though: I have taken everyone's comments into consideration. And I've decided (for now) to drop both the futurefic and the Dresden crossover. I now have an idea for a non-crossover story in the current timeline of the Guardians that I think everyone will be entertained by. And that's all I'm going to say about that for the moment. ;-) There will be two more chapters of the crossover wrapping up all the crazy North Star storylines (and saying goodbye to the Avengers, since this will be my last fic in that universe), and with work being so crazy right now, those two chapters will need about a month to write. You've been warned...**


	17. Chapter 17

'I will say, Mister Castle," Thor commented, clearly impressed, "this will make it much easier to return Loki to our home world..."

Esposito pushed the magically-created flatbed cart that held Thor's bound and gagged foster brother. "How *do* you get back to your world, anyway?" he asked.

"I have a device that allows me to travel back and forth when necessary," Thor replied. The god hesitated, seeming to choose each of his next words very carefully before speaking them. "There...used to be a bridge that allowed my people to travel freely between our world and this one, but...my brother all but destroyed it."

Castle noticed the hesitation in Thor's voice and wished the god would just get to the point. "Yeah?"

Thor continued to hesitate before finally asking Castle the only question that the god had any interest in getting an answer to. "Mister Castle...would you be willing to come visit my home world?"

Castle's eyes shot in Esposito's direction to confirm that he was hearing what he thought he was hearing...speaking only when Esposito's shared look of surprised confirmed that he wasn't hearing things. "You want *me* to come with *you*?"

"At your convenience, of course," replied Thor. "As I told you before, my family has a long history with what you call magic. I am sure that there is a lot that my people could teach you..."

"And in exchange you'd like me to try and repair this bridge," Castle countered, completing the thought.

Thor nodded. "The other Guardians are welcome to come, as well..."

"Then you will understand that I would like to discuss this with everyone else, under the circumstances," said Castle.

"Of course, of course," agreed Thor. The muffled sounds of Loki's gagged complaints brought the god's mind back to his current situation. "Although I will confess that I am not looking forward to having to bring Loki back to our world under the current circumstances..."

"Yeah, I doubt the news of Loki's escape is going to go over well," agreed Esposito.

The reminder of how Loki entered their lives reminded Castle of the similar challenge that he now faced. "Not to mention the *other* evil wizard problem we still have to deal with here on Earth..."

"Lóng zhǔ," agreed Esposito. "Yeah, we gotta figure out what to do about him..."

"About who?" asked Fallon.

Castle looked up and discovered that they had caught up to the rest of the group. "Lóng zhǔ," he replied, answering Fallon's question.

The Director's eyes widened in surprise at the name. "The Dragon Master?! He's alive?"

Castle nodded. "He's currently imprisoned at the top of the Empire State Building. And we're going to have to let the tourists go back up there sometime, aren't we?"

"I suspect Mayor Wheldon might lodge a protest or two against turning his biggest tourist attraction into a permanent wizard's prison," Fallon agreed. "What's your plan?"

"We need a place to take them," Castle declared, "no offense, Thor, but I don't trust that Loki will stay in your prison if he goes back there. No, we need...we need an Australia."

"Australia?" asked Thor, unfamiliar with the term.

Ryan picked up the explanation, catching on quickly to Castle's idea. "Australia is a country on the other side of our planet. It's self-enclosed on a large island. The country itself was originally founded as a penal colony."

"Exactly," agreed Castle. "We need someplace to take these two where they can live out their lives but not hurt themselves or anyone else. And, most importantly, someplace where they can't get back here or back to your world, Thor. Or anywhere else."

Thor smiled as Castle's description sparked an idea in his mind. "I think I might know the perfect place."

#

"How long do you think they'll be gone?" asked Alexis.

Steve handed his girlfriend a glass of water, then sat down on the couch beside her. "No idea," he replied as he took a sip from his bottle of beer. "I'm not exactly an expert on intergalactic travel."

The couple turned to the only man that Steve could even remotely consider to be an expert on that particular subject. "Don't look at me," Stark countered, raising his hands in surrender as he and Pepper set the table. "Just because I went on a free-fall between galaxies doesn't mean I know how long it takes to travel between them. Not to mention the fact that I was unconscious at the time."

Banner, Lanie and Esposito joined Alexis on the couch. "Don't forget your dad can travel at the speed of thought, Lex," said Lanie. "I doubt our gifts are only restricted to this planet."

"None of us are sure about that, though, right?" asked Alexis.

Beckett could clearly hear the edge of worry in Alexis' voice, and it disappointed her that there wasn't anything she could do to ease it. So she did the only thing she could do. "Dinner's ready, everybody. Come and get it."

"Got room for a few more at the table?"

Alexis perked up immediately at the sound of her father's voice. "Dad!" she exclaimed, pulling Castle into a warm hug as soon as she could determine where he was. "You have no idea how glad I am to see you..."

Castle wrapped his arms around his daughter and buried his face in her hair, his memories going back to the first time he was able to embrace Alexis in the lobby of the U.S. Embassy in Paris. "Oh, I think I have an idea..."

"So how'd it go?" Banner asked when the father and daughter finally separated from their embrace. "Did you guys take care of our problem?"

"Aye," said Thor. "My brother and the other wizard will not be bothering you or anyone else ever again."

"Where'd you take 'em?" asked Esposito.

"A small moon I discovered about a thousand light years north of Vanaheim," Thor replied. When the name didn't register with those around him, Thor got straight to the point. "It is a planet that can support life but has no civilized life forms on it. There are no portals for any of our kind to use to travel anywhere, which means that only your magic can be used to travel back and forth to that planet..."

Beckett cut off Thor's explanation. "Then what about Lóng zhǔ? Doesn't that mean that he can come back?"

Ryan smiled at Beckett's question, forcing himself to suppress a chuckle. "Actually...Lóng zhǔ no longer has powers. He's as mortal as Martha is."

That news surprised everyone in the room. "How the hell did that happen?" exclaimed Lanie.

"From what I can tell," replied Ryan, "the 'former' Dragon Master tried to cast a spell to take Castle's power when he was in holding. So when he cast that spell while still under the influence of Castle's spell..."

Everyone in the room caught on at the same time. "It cancelled out his own powers instead," said Alexis.

Thor nodded. "So after Rick and Kevin cast the necessary magicks to separate the moon from the rest of the known universe, we were able to return."

"What about around here?" asked Castle. "We left in kind of a hurry. How'd things go while we were gone?"

Steve smiled as he thought about the answer to Castle's question. "Your daughter was amazing, Rick," he replied. "She cast the restoration spell with no problems...even helped get everyone's cars turned around on the bridge so they could all go home."

"And the armies?" asked Ryan.

Esposito immediately put his partner's mind at ease. "Since you had the good sense to call your tiger in advance, everyone went back to normal as soon as that stupid little rock got destroyed."

"Even the ones affected by the North Star?" asked Castle.

Alexis nodded. "Anyone that the North Star flipped reverted back to normal when the talisman was destroyed."

"So we no longer have to worry about locking up any crazy rogue wizards?" asked Castle. When everyone in the room nodded, Castle let out a huge sigh of relief. "Thank *God*. So what's for dinner?"

"Chili," Beckett replied with a smile.

"Excellent!" Castle exclaimed as he pulled up a chair. "You guys are in for a treat. One of the bigger advantages of a heightened sense of taste is that Beckett is an *incredible* cook."

The group gathered around the table, dishing up bowls of chili and passing around tossed salad, cornbread and bottles of beer and red wine. Too tired and hungry to do anything but eat, the group devoured their food in silence until everyone had had their fill. "Castle, you were absolutely right," Stark declared after a loud belch, "I think that might have been the best chili I've ever had."

"I know Alexis can just conjure up a meal with a thought," Beckett countered, "but I find cooking relaxing. Sometimes it's the best thing for me to do after a long day...especially when I have people around to cook for."

"Well I'd like to thank you all for your hospitality," Pepper insisted. "And perhaps...return the favor?"

That perked up everyone's curiosity. "What did you have in mind?" asked Beckett.

"Dinner," Pepper replied. "At our place. Tomorrow night. Tony and I don't get to spend time with many couples at all...let alone couples who understand the whole superhero thing. So to meet all of you...I've got more questions than I can ask in one night, I guess."

Lanie and Alexis spoke up right away, volunteering before Beckett or any of their men could come up with any objections. "We'd love to," said Lanie. "What time?"

"8:00 ok?" asked Pepper.

"Sounds great," agreed Alexis.

Stark was starting to take on the look of a deer in headlights. "My, my, my, would you look at the time!" He got up and nervously checked his watch. "I'd love to stay," he insisted with a false politeness, "but I've got a...conference call in Tokyo, and I gotta go..."

The couple escaped out the door so quickly it left almost everyone in the room confused as to what had just happened...with one exception. "Bruce?" asked Ryan, "You look like you were almost expecting that..."

"When it comes to women, Tony Stark is spectacularly commitment-phobic," Banner replied. "Nothing causes him to freak out quite like the idea of anything that links him and Pepper together publicly as a couple."

"So what would you suggest?" asked Lanie.

"*Go*," insisted Banner. "If there's one person who can straighten Tony out like nobody else it's Pepper Potts. He'll be fine by tomorrow. And that dinner will be really good for him."

"And how are *you*?" asked Ryan, catching whispers of a million thoughts running through Banner's mind. "With everything that's happened, how are *you* doing?"

Banner scraped at the edges of the label on his beer bottle, stalling as he fought to put his thoughts into words. "It's...strange," he finally admitted with a nervous chuckle. "I've spent so many years of my life on the run because of *him* that now that he's no longer an issue I'm not quite sure what to do with myself."

A roomful of eyes met each other, their minds working in unspoken communication with such speed that it was hard to tell whose voice was the one doing the talking. _What do you think? Should we tell him? Absolutely. He's perfect. I've seen his memories of India...he's great with people, *especially* kids, and he's so smart he going to be able to help us with all kinds of things in the future..._

Banner spoke up loud enough to interrupt what he suspected was going on. "Hey! Would someone care to *verbally* tell me what the hell's going on here?"

As the eyes of everyone in the group started to dance with anticipation, Ryan turned to Castle and nodded.

The entire group, dinner table and all, were instantly transported to a warehouse. Banner pushed his chair away from the table and stood up, turning around slowly to take in his surroundings. They were in a large main area, where doors and hallways led out like the center square on a tic-tac-toe board. Pounding dance music was coming from somewhere Banner couldn't see. Still, one thing stood out to Bruce more above everything else: at least a dozen people saw them just 'appear' out of thin air, he was *sure* of it...

And not one of them batted an eye in surprise. "Where are we, guys?" Banner gasped in surprise.

"We call it the Network."

Banner turned around to see the leader of the army from the bridge standing behind him with a petite, attractive, exotic-looking brunette on his arm. The leader extended a hand in greeting before Bruce had further opportunity to react. "Name's Mark Fallon, Dr. Banner. It's nice to finally meet you. My fiancée heard all of you come in, and I figured you'd probably want an explanation."

"You figured right," Banner agreed. "Where are we?"

"The Bronx," replied Fallon. "Just north of the George Washington Bridge."

Banner made the connection quickly. "That's how you were able to get your people over there so fast." Fallon nodded in agreement. "And you know about...?"

"Them?" Banner tilted his head toward the Guardians in response to Fallon's question, and Fallon nodded in unspoken recognition of the answer. "Our group here was created *because* of them."

"It was?"

Fallon nodded. "Guess you could call us their sidekicks."

That was probably the last thing that Banner had expected to hear. "*You're* *their* sidekicks?" he asked in disbelief. "You work for *them*?"

"More or less," Fallon replied with a shrug. "Most of us have been helped by the Guardians in some way or other. Usually because they saved our lives." The Director smiled wistfully as he remembered the few minutes he had had with his late wife before he continued, "watching them at work opened up a whole new world to us. And they do so much good...we've basically volunteered to help them, and each other, in any way we could."

Banner still seemed to be trying to wrap his head around what he was seeing. "You help each other?"

Fallon nodded again. "That's actually why I was hoping they'd bring you here..." Banner stared at Fallon, his face frowning in a mix of skepticism and confusion as his guard crept slowly up. "I used to be a Homeland Security agent," Fallon explained, "I'm familiar with your file."

"So you know about...?" Banner asked warily.

"I'm not one to judge," Fallon shrugged, "but I do know you're had issues with your...condition in the past." Banner nodded to show his understanding of Fallon's implications, so the Director pressed on. "Is your...condition still the continued issue it once was?"

"No," Banner said, shaking his head with an awestruck smile, "no, it most definitely is not the issue it once was."

Fallon's beamed with a sympathetic confidence. "I was hoping you were going to say that. It frees me up to do what I suspect they brought you here to allow me to do...?"

Banner frowned, clearly still confused even as the Guardians nodded in agreement behind him. "What do they want you to do?"

"Offer you a job, Dr. Banner. With the Network."

"A job?" Banner exclaimed in disbelief. "You want to offer me a job?"

Fallon nodded. His tone turned serious and 'boss-like'. "This job has two distinct levels of responsibility: the first being to assist the Guardians with any medical or scientific research their cases will require."

"And the second?" asked Banner.

Fallon's face softened as the smile returned. "We have a free clinic for Network members and their families. We can't always do much, and budgeting for the clinic is often on the creative side..."

"Which is why you need someone to run the clinic full-time?"

"We take care of our people," Fallon declared with an earnest sincerity that cut Banner to the core. "When we help them, it frees them up to help somebody else. And in that way..."

"...you make a difference." Banner opened his mouth to speak, then closed it when he remembered his one remaining problem. "I still have warrants out for my arrest, and if the military finds me..."

Fallon raised a hand to stop Banner from making further excuses. "One of our primary missions here is to make sure that the Guardians don't end up in the military's hands."

"That's why your boss is the Director of Homeland Security, isn't it?" asked Banner. "And why she wants a seat on the SHIELD council?"

Fallon nodded. "Doctor Banner, I can't promise you much, but I can promise you this: if you come on board with us, then as long as we're here, the people you've been running from will never be able to reach you. You *will* be able to have a life again."

Banner opened his mouth to speak, then hesitated. _It all seems too good to be true,_ thought Banner.

Ryan read Banner's thought as if it were his own. "Bruce," he countered, "when you asked me for help, it was the first step in getting your life back. This is the last one."

"I think I have something else that might help you with that," suggested Fallon. He pushed a slip of paper into Banner's hand...

...which nearly caused the older man to collapse where he stood. "How did you *know*?" he gasped out in amazement.

"Your file," Fallon replied casually.

Banner let out a low whistle, deeply impressed. "Hell of a file you've got on me there, Fallon."

Fallon watched Banner caress that piece of paper as if it were the world's most precious diamond. "So...will you be joining our team, Doctor Banner?"

Banner drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, fighting back tears as he stared at the slip of paper. "Well, after you give me something like this," Banner finally declared with a slow sigh of relief, "how could I possibly refuse?"

#

**Comments highly encouraged!**


	18. Chapter 18

Banner ran a finger around the rim of his drink, trying and failing to keep his hand from shaking. His mind wandered idly to the years where he cloistered himself away from the world to keep himself from experiencing emotional extremes. _If I had tried to do this back then,_ he thought, _the Hulk might have leveled this hotel in the process..._

Out of the corner of his eye, Banner noticed a pretty brunette enter the bar...and it sent his nervousness to a whole new level. The woman was scanning the room, looking for someone, and Banner quietly raised his hand to get her attention. The woman picked up on Banner's signal and smiled, crossing the open lobby space to where a seat was being held for her. "Bruce," she greeted Banner warmly, "it...it's good to see you again."

The nervous catch in the woman's voice told Banner she was just as nervous as he was, which Banner found oddly reassuring. "Hi Betty," Banner greeted the woman, "it's good to see you again, too." He motioned for Betty to take her seat as he took his own. "H-how...how have you been?"

Betty blushed, pulling her hair back behind her ear twisting it forward over her shoulder. "I'm good," she replied, although Bruce suspected she wasn't quite feeling the sentiment behind the words. "Things are good..."

"Really?" Bruce asked her quietly.

The genuine concern in Bruce's voice broke all of Betty's defenses. "No," she replied, her voice breaking slightly, "I-I-I mean, I'm okay. I'm...I'm getting by."

Bruce resisted the urge to place a hand on her knee; to touch her in some way that she would find comforting. "I was...surprised to find out that you'd stayed in New York," he admitted. "After...after everything..."

"I couldn't leave," Betty confessed. "I don't know...I-I guess, being here just made me feel closer to you. I didn't want to lose that."

Bruce fought not to hope for what he was reading between the lines of Betty's last statement. "So there...there isn't anybody in your life right now?"

Betty shook her head. "There hasn't been anybody, Bruce. Not since us."

Relief washed over Bruce like a warm blanket, and he smiled. "Good. That's...good..." He then backtracked hastily, not wanting to sound callous about her happiness. "I-I-I mean, I'm sorry to hear that, I..."

"What are you doing here, Bruce?"

The coldness in Betty's voice threatened to give Bruce emotional whiplash. "I just...I'm living in New York now, and when I found out you were, too, I..."

Betty's eyes widened in concerned surprise; Bruce's words were not lost on her. "You're living in New York now?" she whispered through clenched teeth. "Bruce, are you out of your mind?!"

"It's not like that anymore," Bruce countered matter-of-factly. "Things have...changed with me."

"Changed?" Betty asked in disbelief. "Changed how?"

Bruce took a sip of his drink, fighting to find a way to put his experience into words. "The...unpredictable part of my life...has become a lot more...predictable..."

"Predictable?" Betty asked warily. "But...you've always known when it was happening; you've...you...you told me you can feel it when he comes out..."

"I can do more than just predict it, now," Bruce insisted. "I can *control* it."

Betty's heart skipped a beat as Bruce's words finally sunk in. "You can *control* it? Completely?" she gasped out, eyes wide.

Bruce nodded, pushing his chair as close to Betty as he dared to give them some semblance of privacy in such a public space.

Betty gasped as she watched Bruce's hand turn Hulk-green, then return to normal a second later. "You really can control it," she exclaimed in a breathless whisper. Tears started to fall from her eyes as Bruce nodded. "How...how did you finally do it?"

"It's kind of a long story," Bruce admitted. His voice caught in his throat as he covered Betty's hand with his own. "I could tell you all about it...if you'd like?" he asked shyly.

Betty turned her hand over and gave the one above it a gentle squeeze. "I think I'd like that."

A thousand conflicting emotions washed over Bruce. Fear, amazement, regret, anger, curiosity, trepidation...they all flashed through his mind in a few precious seconds. Love floated over those emotions like oil floating on top of water. There weren't many thoughts running through Bruce's mind as those emotions coursed through his soul...until one pushed its way through to present itself as absolute truth.

The emotions he was feeling weren't his. They were Betty's.

_I think you were supposed to be an empath,_ Ryan had told him. _A pretty powerful one, if the big guy's any indication..._ The logical, rational part of Bruce's mind pushed the wave of emotions aside as he made the connections between his past and his present. _If the two sides of...me...have fully merged, then maybe that fixed me enough to bring out the gift I was supposed to have in the first place..._

"Bruce?"

Betty's voice shook Bruce out of his musings, and he set his thoughts aside to focus on his present...and his future.

He had a future.  
With Betty.  
To him, that was the only thing that really mattered.

#

"Hey."

Castle turned around from the bench where he was watching boats pass by in New York harbor. His father approached cautiously carrying a brown paper bag. "Hey," Castle returned Hunt's greeting. "How'd you know where I was?"

"I called the loft," Hunt replied. "Kate told me."

Castle smiled...but the smile didn't quite meet his eyes. "She would know."

Hunt sat down next to his son and pulled out the two beers in the bag he was carrying. "Why the long face, Rick?" he asked Castle as he handed the wizard a beer.

Castle took a long drink from the bottle before answering his father. "Fallon told me about your meeting. About the job offer."

Hunt mouth a silent "oh," before taking a drink from his own bottle. "Why didn't you take the job?" Castle pressed on before his father could speak. "I thought that..."

"You thought what, Rick?"

Castle watched another boat pass by the Statue of Liberty as he tried to express the conflict going on in his heart. "I thought...now that Alexis and I no longer need you to protect us..."

Hunt caught on immediately. "You thought I would stay with you and your mother. That we could be a family." When Castle nodded, Hunt breathed out a weary sigh. "I still want to do that," he insisted. "I just..."

"What?"

Hunt took another drink of his beer before speaking. "Rick...the things that you and your friends can do are amazing. And having gotten to taste a little bit of that..."

Castle recoiled at the thoughts that were going through his mind. "Is that it? You can't handle being around us because of..."

"No, no!" Hunt countered quickly, cutting off Castle before he could give voice to his fears. "I'm in *awe* of what you do. And what you *don't* do. God, the power that you have...I want to help you guys, I do. But I don't think I can do that from inside the Network."

"You can't?" asked Castle, confused.

Hunt shook his head. "I've been in this game for a long time, Rick. I've spent a lifetime building...let's just call it my own Network. Working within that network is the best thing I can do to help you do what you all do best. And I can't do that if I leave my job to come work with you guys."

Castle's face hell, his heart drowning in disappointment and self-pity. "I see.."

"Of course," Hunt continued, ignoring his son's despair, "just because I can't work in your organization doesn't mean we can't be in the same city together."

A spark of hope lit up in Castle's heart. "We can't?"

"Oh..." said Hunt, trying to sound as casual as he could, "did I forget to mention that I requested a transfer to my agency's New York office?"

"You...requested a transfer?"

Hunt smiled broadly. "You *are* right about one thing, Rick. You and your friends are more than capable of protecting yourself and your family. Which means that I no longer have to worry about keeping my distance to keep you safe. So I'd still like to be a part of your lives...if you're still willing to have me."

Castle matched his father's smile as the neck of his beer bottle clinked against his father's in a toast. "Always."

#

"So I walk into the lab and Tony is up in the arms of this *contraption*, trying to figure out how to have some robot arms put the pieces of his suit on for him..."

The mouths of the Guardians were as open as Pepper's had been that night when they pictured the scene in their heads. "So what'd you say?" asked Lanie.

"I didn't say anything," said Pepper. "But while he was still being held up by all those robot arms, Tony just looked me right in the eye and said, 'Let's face it, this isn't the worst thing you've caught me doing.'"

"And was it?" asked Beckett.

Pepper blushed furiously. "Not even close."

The room erupted in laughter...except for Ryan, who winced as Pepper's memory of the worst thing she ever caught Stark doing flashed through his mind. Stark, for his part, was deliberately trying to ignore the fact that everyone in the room was having another laugh at his expense. "Who wants another round?" he asked, trying to get out of the situation.

"I got it," shrugged Castle. Every drink on the table refilled with a wave of the wizard's hand.

"Great, thanks," said Stark, not really feeling the sentiment.

Pepper, for her part, was as relaxed as her boyfriend was being uptight. "Thank you guys again for coming over tonight. You have no idea how nice it is to talk to someone who gets it."

"Oh," said Beckett, looking around at her fiancé and her group of extraordinary friends. "I have an idea."

"I just wish I could do it more often," Pepper commented quietly.

The look that passed between the two Guardian women at the table was not lost on Ryan. _What is it? _Ryan's voice echoed in Lanie and Beckett's minds.

_What...what would you think about introducing Stark and Pepper to the Network_? asked Lanie.

Ryan had to keep his eyes from widening even as he widened the connection between the Guardians so the rest of the group could join them in the discussion. _Lanie...you want to let Tony Stark into the *Network*? Mr. 'lives in public as Iron Man', 'never wants to keep himself *out* of the public eye' Tony Stark? You want to hand over one of our biggest secrets to *him*?!_

_And Pepper too,_ Lanie insisted. _I'm sure she can be trusted._

_I think it might be a good idea,_ Alexis chimed in.

_So do I, _agreed Esposito.

Ryan nearly spit out his beer. _You *do*?! Javi, why...?_

_Stark's never really been close to anyone in his life,_ replied Esposito. _That's why committing to Pepper scares him so much_. He grabbed Lanie's hand under the table and squeezed it, drawing strength from his wife's presence. _I'm starting to understand how much having someone to take care of changes you. It would do Stark a hell of a lot of good to have that in his life._

The lack of conversation was starting to worry Pepper. "What...what's going on, guys?"

Castle's eyes wandered over to both his fiancée and daughter before speaking. "We were just...discussing something." He conjured up a pen and a small scrap of paper so he could write down the address of the warehouse. "Can you guys meet us at this address tomorrow morning at 10am? No press, no attention, just you?"

Pepper and Stark shared a cautious glance between them. "What's this about, Castle?" asked Stark.

"You wanted to hang out with people who understand what you're going through with...all of this?" Lanie asked Pepper. When Pepper nodded, Lanie's reply was simple and to the point. "Then meet us at that address tomorrow morning."

"Thank you, again, for your hospitality, Ms. Potts," Alexis chimed in politely...

...before all of the Guardians disappeared, leaving only Pepper and Stark alone at the table. "Do they do that a lot?" asked Pepper, confused.

"Surprisingly, yes," Stark replied.

"Are we going to go meet them tomorrow?" asked Pepper as she started to clear the table.

"I don't know," Stark replied with a shrug. He looked up at Pepper, trying to get a read on what she was thinking. "Do *you* want to meet them tomorrow?"

Pepper thought about the past couple of days. "I'd like to," she admitted. When Stark raised an eyebrow in surprised curiosity, Pepper sat down next to him. "Tony, you know that working for you hasn't given me much of an opportunity to have a social life. And especially after you became Iron Man, and we started dating...well, it's not exactly like I have all that many opportunities to make friends. Let alone friends who..."

"Friends who go out and try to save the world on a regular basis?" Stark completed Pepper's thought with a soft and sympathetic tone in his voice.

Pepper nodded. "As weird as this whole little cryptic offer might seem, I want to give this a shot."

Tony smiled as his heart relented. "All right," he agreed, knowing he could never say no to Pepper, "but I'm going to keep our suits in the car just in case. Agreed?"

It surprised Pepper just how excited she was getting hearing her boyfriend talk about 'their' suits. "Deal."

#

Pepper linked arms with her boyfriend just as Fallon was wrapping up their 'tour' of the Network warehouse. "Tony, isn't this place *amazing*?" she whispered to her boyfriend.

Stark, for his part, was still trying to wrap his head around what he was seeing...mostly so he could figure out the 'catch'. "Let me get this straight," he asked Fallon. "Everyone who knows about this place knows about the Guardians? *Who* they are?"

Fallon nodded. "Some do. Some don't. None of us care." When Stark's expression grew quizzical, Fallon explained, "it's why we use code names around here. It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter *what* you are. What matters is what you do with what you've been given."

Stark's thoughts wandered back to the few friends he considered himself to have: the Avengers who weren't joined at the hip to SHIELD. Steve Rodgers. Bruce Banner. Even Thor, to a degree. Stark quickly realized what those three men had in common: and it was the same 'mission statement' that Fallon and his Network, apparently, had chosen to live their lives by as well.

"What about the kids?" asked Pepper.

"You can't do a whole lot of good for the world if it takes all your energy to just get by," Fallon replied. "So we do what we can to take care of each other. It's not always as much as we'd like, but we do whatever we can with what we have."

Three kids ran past the group, and Stark's eyes followed them...then widened as he immediately recognized who caught the group of kids before they had a chance to escape. "Banner...?" Stark exclaimed in a voice so barely above a whisper that Beckett would have had to strain to hear it.

"Sorry," Banner chastized the group of children, laughing even as he did it, "but your parents brought you kids to me for your checkups and I'm not going to let you get away until you get 'em."

A girl no older than five looked up to Banner with wide, trusting eyes. "Can I get a piggy back ride back to the clinic?"

"You all can, if you want to," Banner replied.

That sent the trio into a frenzy. The three kids climbed onto Banner's back, shoulders and arms, and Banner handled the weight effortlessly. Stark watched from a distance as Banner jogged back to the clinic with the kids on his back; he was laughing and smiling the whole way. The look on his face, the joy that was radiating from his entire being...it was something that Stark thought he would never see. He turned his attention back to Director Fallon, even as his eyes never left the door that Banner went through. "You said you guys do what you can with what you have?"

"Yeah..." Fallon agreed with a wary nod.

"Make a list," Stark stated simply. "Whatever you need that you're not getting, you'll have it. I promise."

#

Nick Fury had seen many strange things in his life. A lot of it qualified as 'part of the job description' when it came to being the Director of an organization like SHIELD. And the pictures he was currently flipping through were no exception. The first was a clean picture of Manhattan on a beautiful fall day. The second made 9-11 look like a picnic: a high-definition image of midtown Manhattan in ruins, on fire and under attack by dragons coming in from three different directions. But the third picture...the third picture was a near carbon-copy of the first.

The only difference between the first picture and the third? Digitally recorded time and date stamping that showed (with independent verification) that the two pictures were taken several hours apart: the first before the wreckage picture and the second one *after* it. Fury shook his head in amazement: the three photos were the base of the file on one Richard Castle, wizard. "And I used to think Thor was impressive..." he commented to no one in particular.

Someone, though, did hear the comment. "Sir?" Hill asked him. "May I ask you a question?"

Fury closed the window where he was examining the pictures and focused his attention on his lieutenant. "What is it, Hill?"

"Why have you been so...conciliatory to the Director of Homeland Security? When she's been keeping major secrets from SHIELD even while she's lobbying for a seat on the council?"

Fury mouthed a silent "ah" as his mind re-focused on the earlier conversation. "Do you remember what she said about the council?"

"About how the council is dangerous, power-mad and desperately needs to be controlled?"

Fury nodded. "Is she wrong?"

Hill thought about how the council. How, if they had had their way, would have let Manhattan become a smoking, radioactive crater. "No. No, she's not wrong."

"And do you see either you or I getting a seat on the council anytime soon?"

"No," replied Hill, "no, I don't."

"Then I hope you can see the value in having someone on the concil who considers us a trusted ally."

Hill caught on to Fury's logic quickly. "And because we treated her people with respect..."

"Director McPherson, hopefully, sees us as those allies."

"But what about the Guardians?" countered Hill. "I can't think of a bigger potential threat. The amount of power that Castle has under his control makes Thor look mortal..."

"Oh, I never said I wasn't going to do anything about the Guardians," insisted Fury. "Just that I was going to work to keep Director McPherson on our side."

Hill frowned in confusion. "Okay, *clearly* I'm missing something. You have a plan for what we should do about the Guardians?"

"We're not going to *do* anything," countered Fury. "For the moment. From everything I got from Director McPherson's files, the Guardians are good people who are protecting their territory in a way that we just can't match. And since they're reporting to the President, I see no reason to interfere. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't keep tabs on them."

"And how do you propose we do that?" asked Hill.

Fury's response was to push a virtual button on his keyboard. "You can come in now, agent," He then turned his attention back to his lieutenant. "I've asked my senior level 7 agent to keep tabs on the Guardians and report back to me if they become a problem."

"I...I wasn't aware there *was* a level 7 within SHIELD, sir," said Hill.

When the senior level 7 agent chimed in to the conversation, Hill nearly collapsed from the shock of hearing a voice she never thought she would hear again. "That's precisely the point, Agent Hill. Part of the directive of the level seven project is to keep tabs on threats that we can not publicly acknowledge the existence of."

Hill was still hung on recognizing the voice that had just spoken to her. "Coulson?"

Level 7 agent Phil Coulson came forward to meet with his boss. "Thank you for all the intel on the Guardians, agent Coulson. It was very helpful."

"No problem, boss," Coulson replied matter-of-factly. "The Guardians are something of an open secret in New York City. It wasn't hard to get the information."

Fury then turned his gaze back to his lieutenant even as he asked his question of his old friend. "And are the Guardians a threat?"

"Only in that they tend to attract threats like honey attracts flies," countered Coulson, "but that's no different from any of the Avengers."

"I need your department to keep an eye on the Guardians, Coulson," ordered Fury. "Let me know if that situation changes in any way."

Hill wasn't sure, but she thought she could see a ghost of a smile pass across Coulson's face as he replied, "Yes, sir. Count on it."

#

**Well, that's it, folks! It's going to be a bit before I can start posting the next story, (at least a week and a half, minimum). But it will encourage me to start posting a whole lot quicker if I get some comments...**


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